


A Day in the Life of a Doll

by UnmovingGreatLibrary



Series: The Dollmaker's Daughter [2]
Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Childhood, Dolls, Established Relationship, F/F, Family, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-07 12:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3173450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnmovingGreatLibrary/pseuds/UnmovingGreatLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunshine's continuing adventures as she explores Gensokyo, meets new people, and generally enjoys being a kid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Strawberries

**Author's Note:**

> So, it only took an entire year, but the sequel is officially started now. \o/ Like the summary says, this specific fic will mostly be a slice-of-life series focusing on daily events. If I get the urge to introduce any larger changes, those will probably happen in additional stories. For now, I'll be updating this irregularly, whenever the mood strikes me. Thanks for reading!

Alice turns the doll over in her hands, giving the delicate joints a final inspection. They stay stiffly locked, which only contributes to its weird, unnatural look. With a bald head, a featureless torso, and dark, empty eye sockets, the thing looks a little creepy. “She looks good so far,” Alice says, and sits the doll on the workbench. From a nearby shelf, she grabs a box made of a dark wood and covered in baroque engravings. Opening it up, she reveals dozens of tiny eyes, in every color of the rainbow. They're sorted into pairs, each one in a little velvet cubby to keep them from scratching each other. “What color do you think her eyes should be?”

“Um.” Sunshine leans forward and pushes herself up against the edge of the table to look at the options. This seems like a really important decision to her. She's spent the past few days thinking about it, and still isn't sure. Soon though, a pair in the corner catches her attention, and she points to them.

“Those ones?” Alice says. When Sunshine nods in response, she gently prompts, “Can you say it?”

“I. Um. I want... those ones. Please.”

“Very good. Do you know what color that is?”

Sunshine squints at the eyes. Springing all these questions on her without warning doesn't seem fair, but she still doesn't want to disappoint. “Violet?”

“You're close,” Alice says, and coaxes the unfinished doll's chin up, letting her slide one of the eyes into an empty socket. “It's lavender, actually. I think it's a nice color.” Once the eye is in place, she adjusts it until it's pointing forward, then repeats the process with the other one. “There, now it's time for her mouth. Would you like to paint it, or should I?”

“I can.”

“Mmh, well.” Alice closes the box of eyes and slides it back into its spot on the neatly-organized workbench, then grabs a pot of paint and pulls a small brush from a holder. As she opens the paint, she says, “It's hard, so it's okay if you'd like me to do it.”

“Uh-uh. I want to,” Sunshine says, already reaching for the brush. “She's my doll.”

“Okay...” Alice hands the brush over, then guides Sunshine's fingers into the right position on its handle. “Make sure to wipe off the extra paint... there you go. Do you remember how the mouths look on the other dolls? That's what we're trying to do.”

“Mmhm.” Sunshine's lips purse in concentration as she slowly lowers the brush to the doll's face. The mouth comes out just a little wobbly and with a slight hook at one end, but she's still beaming when she lifts the brush away and looks to Alice for approval.

“That's... very good,” Alice says, resisting the perfectionist urge to repaint it herself. She settles for grabbing a cloth to wipe a few extra drips of paint away from the edges. Sunshine blows on the drying mouth as Alice rinses the brush off. “Now, have you thought about what color her hair should be?”

Sunshine hasn't even gotten that far in her plans. She freezes, staring into space and completely overwhelmed with indecision, until Alice slides a different box onto the workbench. Pulling it open, she reveals a collection of doll hair, each one a little wig perched atop a tiny dome to keep them organized. The color selection is a bit tamer than the eyes, but there are still plenty for Sunshine to choose from. She taps a bronze-colored one, and at a familiar, prompting look from Alice, says, “This one. Please.”

Alice nods and lifts the tiny wig, then settles it on the doll's head. With the addition of hair, eyes, and a mouth, it's almost presentable apart from being naked. After closing the box and sliding it away, she looks down to Sunshine. “There. All that's left is the dress. Did you finish it?”

“Mmhm!” Sunshine's been looking forward to this part the most. She's always known the basics of sewing, since it's one of the most common tasks that Alice has her dolls perform, but doing it for herself was an exciting new experience. Alice had given her a plain doll dress to start with, with a small box of trimmings that she could use to decorate it herself. She'd spent days getting it perfect. Hurrying over to the corner of the workshop, she tugs her coat off its peg, then digs the neatly-folded dress out of the pocket. Before she's even halfway across the room again, she's holding it up proudly. It might have started off as a normal white doll dress, but yesterday Sunshine sewed a dozen multicolored bows around the skirt, along with a larger green one, meant for human-sized outfits, at the small of the back. She'd wanted to add a scabbard, but Alice wasn't quite ready to give her _that_ much freedom.

Alice inspects the thing. “It's very... colorful,” she says, in that carefully neutral tone of approval that parents quickly learn to cultivate.

Sunshine nods excitedly. “Um, on the back. There's a green one,” she says, pointing to it. “It's really big.”

“Yes, I see. Would you like to put it on her?”

Sunshine doesn't even wait to answer before she leans over the bench, dress in hand. At a gesture from Alice, the doll raises her arms, and Sunshine pulls the dress into place. Once it's on, she takes a few seconds to adjust it, then steps back and admires her handiwork.

“Do you think she should have a bow in her hair?” Alice asks, and when Sunshine nods in response, pulls one last box out, filled with spools of ribbon. “What color do you think it should be?”

“Um.” Sunshine looks over the options, comparing them to the clothes that the doll is already wearing. “White.”

“White it is, then.” Alice pulls a length of ribbon off the spool, then cuts it. Gathering the doll's hair up, she starts tying a bow at the base. As she works, she says, “Have you thought of a name for her yet?”

"No." Sunshine purses her lips. "Um. What names are good?"

"All of _my_ dolls are named after cities in the outside world. I could tell you some girls' names from my home country, or you could pick a Japanese name..."

Sunshine considers this. She doesn't think that her doll should have the same name as anybody else, so she doesn't like those suggestions. Way back when she chose her own name, she picked something that Alice likes. Since this will be her doll, she should name it after something _she_ likes, but naming her doll Sword, Cake, Pencil, Book, or Moon all seem a little weird. "... Ichigo!"

“... she doesn't look like much of a strawberry, does she?”

“No. But that's her name.”

“Hmm. Okay, then. Ichigo it is.” With a few final adjustments, the bow is in place. “There. All done," Alice says, and looks over the results. Red-brown hair, violet eyes, and a white-and-rainbow dress. It's not quite as bad as she'd feared, but she's already planning how to politely deny involvement with its creation if anybody asks. Sunshine's staring at it with a grin on her face, though, and that's all that matters, really.

"Can I move her now?"

"Yes." Alice says. "She's all yours. Do you know how to give her commands...?" The look that Sunshine gives her is all the answer she needs. "... right, I guess you would. She can shoot, but even though her bullets won't hurt anybody, I don't want you doing it inside the house or having her shoot people, okay? We'll talk about that later."

"Okay," Sunshine says, and turns to the doll. "Come on, let me show you my room!"

* * *

Alice's workshop is now located in a small building in the back yard, raised almost overnight thanks to the magic of doll labor. Further away, at a safe blast radius from the house, is a matching workshop for Marisa. Both of their roofs are piled high with the first heavy snow of the winter, and the yard is pockmarked with footprints from the hours that Sunshine has already spent playing in it.

There are more important things to do than play right now, though. Sunshine hitches up her dress, and the snow crunches under her feet as she stomps through it on her way to the house. She'd like to just fly over it, but flying makes her get tired quickly, and she has a lot of big plans for today. Once she steps inside, she stomps her boots clean, slides them off, and rises up on her tiptoes to hang her coat on a peg by the door before she hurries deeper into the house.

Sunshine's bedroom still has scars proving that it used to be Alice's former workshop. The air smells lightly of sawdust, smoke, and old books, and the wooden floor still has scuff marks showing where heavier shelves and benches used to sit. The walls have been painted a cheery pastel yellow, and in the few weeks that she's had it, it's already started filling up with possessions.

“Um,” Sunshine says, and looks around, considering where to start.

“This is my books.” She points to a small bookshelf in the corner, with a single shelf filled with neatly-arranged children's books. Ichigo looks at it dutifully.

“This is my bed.” Her bed is new enough that it still smells lightly of wood lacquer. It's been kept very neatly made.

“This is my toy box.” Sunshine opens it so that Ichigo can view the contents. Inside are a wooden sword, a top, a bag of marbles, a pinwheel, a boxed-up doll-sized tea set, another box with tiny wooden soldiers, and a rubber ball. Once she's satisfied that Ichigo has had enough time to see everything, she closes the lid, then looks around her room again.

“Oh, um.” Sitting on the edge of the dresser is a Shanghai doll in a yellow dress, missing one forearm. Sunshine carefully slides her hands under its armpits and lifts it up for Ichigo's inspection. “This used to be me. But then I got smart, and my moms made me big. If _you_ get smart, they'll, um. They'll probably make you big too. And then I'd have a little sister. And I think that would be fun.” Putting together all those words is hard. Sunshine hopefully watches Ichigo for a reaction, but if Ichigo thinks that this sounds fun, she certainly isn't showing it. With a sigh, Sunshine sits her tiny body back on the dresser. “Well. If you feel like you're getting smart later... let me know.”

It's an offer that she's already extended to every one of Alice's dolls, but to no avail. Alice has already warned her a few times not to get her hopes up, but as far as Sunshine is concerned, if it happened once, it could happen again.

“Um. You're my doll. So you're supposed to help me with stuff,” Sunshine says, and looks around the room. She's not sure what she needs help with, really. Alice's dolls always help with cooking and cleaning, but she doesn't have a lot of those to do. After some thought, she opens her dresser, pulls out a double-handful of socks, and drops them on the floor. “... pick up my clothes.”

Without so much as a nod in response, Ichigo hovers down and starts ferrying the socks back to the drawer. Sunshine watches this without as much satisfaction as she'd hoped for. It hasn't been very long since she was a normal doll. Months ago, that sort of thing had been her entire life. Even though she'd enjoyed it at the time, it still feels weird to be on this end of the exchange. Or... maybe 'disappointing' is the word. When _she_ was _Alice's_ doll, carrying out Alice's will was her entire world. It's strange to find out that she can give orders so casually. Something so important should _feel_ important.

Soon enough, all of the socks are put away, and Sunshine scoops Ichigo up and gives the doll a hug. Disappointment is no excuse for being mean. "Good job. You're a good doll, Ichigo," she says earnestly.

Before Sunshine can think of something else for Ichigo to do for her, she's interrupted by the sound of the door closing out in the main room. This is followed by a few seconds of somebody stomping snow off of their boots, followed by a shout of, “Hey, are you guys ready to leave?”

“That's my other mom,” Sunshine explains to Ichigo. “You can meet her too!”

“Hey, you finished her!” As soon as Sunshine is close enough, Marisa scoops her up and gives her a peck on the cheek. “She's really, uh... got lots of colors, huh?”

Sunshine nods at that, then gestures the doll forward. Ichigo floats closer and stiffly bows to Marisa. “Her name is Ichigo.”

“Ichigo, huh? Pleased to meet ya.” Marisa reaches forward, taking the doll's tiny hand between two fingers, and gives her a very light handshake before looking back to Sunshine. “Are you all set to head to the shrine?"

"Mmhm."

"Good. I'll go grab Alice, so why don't you start getting ready?"

Getting ready is its own little challenge. Sunshine's wardrobe used to consist of a single dress and a pair of shoes, but it's been growing by leaps and bounds recently; she's suddenly the owner of socks, underwear, gloves, hats, scarves, dresses, shirts, skirts, shoes, boots, and coats. She hadn't been too sure about the thicker clothes at first, but after the late December chill had set in, she'd learned to accept them pretty quickly.

On top of her yellow dress go white socks, black shoes, black gloves, a white coat, a red scarf, and a white knit cap. Sunshine feels like she's barely visible under all of it, but it keeps her from feeling cold when she walks outside and trudges through the snow back to Alice's workshop, with Ichigo in her arms.

* * *

The flight to the shrine is much, much less fun now that it's cold. On long trips, Sunshine rides behind Marisa on her broomstick. Usually, Marisa would fill half the ride with loops, barrel rolls, and dives, keeping Sunshine squealing with delight the whole way. Today, though, it's too cold for any of those. Sunshine clings tightly to Marisa, with her face buried against her mother's back to shield it from the cold air whipping past them. Behind her, Ichigo is latched onto the broomstick, while Alice flies behind the three of them with her own escort of dolls.

From the air, the Hakurei shrine looks nearly abandoned. The roof and grounds are piled high with snow, and the torii are almost hidden under a thick layer of it, too. Only the swept path up to the donation box and the thin pillar of smoke coming from the chimney attest to life.

The three land, and Marisa walks up to the donation box, rings the bell, and bows her head with a couple of halfhearted claps. Sunshine watches curiously. When Marisa finishes, she looks back. "Do you know how to do it?"

"Um." Sunshine looks at the box uncertainly. "What is it?"

"It's, you know. To get the gods to give you good luck 'n stuff."

"Oh."

Marisa turns back toward the box, then mimes the process again. "See, you ring the bell, then clap and bow and think about stuff you want or whatever, and the gods'll—"

"You missed the step about leaving an offering."

Reimu's voice makes the three turn around. The shrine maiden is standing on the path leaning toward the human village, as bundled up as she ever gets in a scarf. She and Marisa hold each other's gazes for several seconds, and even Sunshine senses a little tension. Miraculously, Marisa is the first one to cave, and she digs in several pockets before finding a few grubby coins to drop into Sunshine's hands. "... right, yeah. And put this in the box." A bit more quietly, she adds, "I guess."

Sunshine does as she was told. She steps forward, drops the coins in the box—they make a lonely, lonely sound as they impact against the bottom—rings the bell, and claps her hands twice. She can't decide on anything to pray for, though. Up until a few weeks ago, all of her belongings were a few picture books, a pencil, a pen, an ink well, a handful of toys, and a few changes of clothes. Now she has an entire _room_ just for her stuff. She can't imagine having more. After some deliberation, she instead wishes to get to go on an adventure like her parents, possibly with a dragon involved.

Once she's lingered in prayer for a suitably somber-feeling amount of time, Sunshine straightens up, and Reimu approaches, smiling. “ _You_ look bigger than I remember.”

Sunshine shies away to hide behind Marisa. Peeking around her, she nods.

“Heh. She's still kinda shy, I guess,” Marisa says, and stuffs her hands in her pockets. “Anyway, wanna invite us in? It's freezing out here.”

“Inviting yourself in anyway just makes me want to say no...” Reimu says, but drops the subject. “You did donate a little, I guess. That's at least worth a cup of tea. You can come in and warm up, but I don't want you doing anything weird that will scare off other people. New Year's donations are a lot of my income.”

* * *

Reimu doesn't have sugar for the tea. Without that, it tastes too bitter to Sunshine, so she only sips at just enough of it to be polite as the four sit around her kotatsu. Thankfully, Alice thought to bring her pencil and paper, so she's able to draw while the adults make conversation. Sunshine does her best to listen to it, but a lot of it goes over her head. The more time she spends at the shrine, the more she realizes that Reimu doesn't spend her entire life fighting youkai. It's kind of disappointing, really.

Sunshine is dragged back into the conversation when Reimu leans over the table to look at her paper. “Hmm, what are you drawing?”

The picture is Sunshine's most ambitious drawing yet. It's a picture of a rocket ship that Marisa told her about riding in once when she helped to invade the moon. Sunshine thinks it would be fun to visit the moon some day, because apparently there's a lake that's bigger than Gensokyo. The moon also has a lot of rabbits on it, which can only be a good thing in her opinion. So, she's drawn herself and her parents, standing outside the rocket and surrounded by bunnies next to the sea. Or started to, at least. So far she only has the rocket, herself, and a few bunnies. She studies the picture for a moment, and hesitates.

[A ROCKET] Sunshine writes, on a different piece of paper. [ON THE MOON.]

“Oh.” Reimu says. “The one that me and your mom rode up there?”

[NO. A NEW ROCKET.]

Reimu cocks her head to the side. “You're not afraid to talk, are you? I won't hurt you...”

Sunshine meets her eyes and, reluctantly, mumbles, “Not afraid.”

“She's uncomfortable with talking sometimes,” Alice explains. “We let her write when she prefers to.”

Sunshine almost wilts with relief at not having to give the explanation herself, but it's still a little embarrassing. Talking is hard. Alice has said that she's getting better at it, but she's not. Not nearly as quickly as she got better at most other things. Even when other people are patient with her, she feels clumsy when she tries saying more than a few words at once. At least when she writes, she can take her time to choose her words.

“Oh,” Reimu says. “Well, that's okay too. I was just wondering. Still, if youkai could be as scared of me as she acts sometimes, my life would be way eas—”

Reimu comes to a complete stop mid-sentence, as a folded paper glides into the side of her head. Robbed of its momentum, the thing falls unceremoniously to the floor, while Reimu follows it back to its point of origin with her eyes. It's not exactly a difficult crime to solve, since Marisa is sitting at the far end of the table, with a small stack of Sunshine's paper in front of her and another piece already halfway folded. “What,” Reimu says, “are you doing.”

“Paper airplane,” Marisa says. “I was tryin' to land it in front of Sunshine, but my aim was off. This place is so drafty, y'know?” The second paper airplane soon takes off, and manages to sail past the end of the table. Sunshine watches in amazement. After doing a loop, it drifts down to the floor, and she takes off after it, with Ichigo riding on her shoulder.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Marisa says.

Sunshine nods in response, then turns the airplane over in her hands for inspection. Up close, it just looks like normal paper, but that makes sense, she decides. Marisa's broom looks like a normal broom, and she makes that fly all the time.

As Marisa starts folding a third airplane, the unmistakable sound of a heavy load of coins being dropped into the donation box comes from outside, followed by a ring of the bell. Sunshine looks toward the closed door curiously, while her parents' eyes turn toward Reimu.

"Villagers really come up here for New Year's?"

"Well, it's only natural," Reimu says, sounding less confident than she probably intends to. "People want to get blessings to start the year off right."

"Mmhm." Marisa's tongue sticks out the corner of her mouth as she focuses on a perfect fold. "You're not gonna go personally thank 'em?"

"If I did something like that, I'd just come off as needy..."

"Uh-huh." Marisa finishes the third airplane and draws it back for a throw. Following it every centimeter with her eyes, Sunshine rises to standing, ready to chase it down. With a little snap of her forearm, Marisa sends the plane sailing gracefully out over the table. Sunshine tenses up, trying to predict its trajectory. After a few minor adjustments, she's poised right in front of it, her hands held up and ready to snatch it out of the air...

And then, barely half a meter from her face, the air splits into brief darkness, and the plane disappears. Before the hole in space is even closed, another one opens up above the table. The plane plummets out of it, flying straight down, and smacks into the top of Reimu's head.

"O-ow!" Reimu rubs sorely at the impact site. "Y-yukari!"

“Hmm?” The voice comes from the other side of the door, and Sunshine freezes as it opens. The lady outside is even taller than Alice, with very long blonde hair (like her parents!) and a puffy dress. “Did I do something?”

“Like there's anybody else around here who can do that kind of stuff.”

“Well, happy new year to you too, Reimu.” As the lady steps inside, Sunshine scoots around the table as casually as she can, then shrinks down behind it next to Alice. With a nudge, she urges Ichigo forward, and the doll takes up a defensive stance on the table in front of her. The lady still takes a seat across from her. “I'm afraid that I don't have a clue what you're talking about,” she says with a teasing smile.

“Whatever. Shouldn't you be sleeping?”

“The boundary between one year and the next is an important one. I find it best to wake up for long enough to make sure that the transition goes smoothly,” the woman says. Afterward, her eyes turn to Sunshine. “And who might you be?”

Sunshine sinks even further down behind the table, and Alice reaches down to loop an arm around her, pulling her in closer. She's left close enough to feel Alice's warmth through her clothes. It's a reassuring bit of familiarity, but it doesn't dispel her anxiety over the situation. She's nervous around strangers to begin with, but this one seems extra strange. Her eyes are violet; in a creepy way, not cute like Ichigo's. “This is our daughter, Sunshine,” Alice says, then looks downward. “Sunshine, this is Yukari Yakumo. It's okay, she won't hurt you.”

Reimu mutters something in response to that reassurance, and Yukari does her best to pretend not to notice. “Not somebody like you, at least,” Yukari agrees. “With every child of a human and a youkai, Gensokyo's peace grows a little stronger.”

Marisa idly smooths out a fourth airplane, trying a few experimental folds. “Is that what you tell guys when you're tryin' to pick 'em up?”

The comment goes completely over Sunshine's head, but that's not really her main concern, as Yukari leans closer and smiles at her. “Are you frightened of me?”

“Play nice, Yukari,” Reimu says, keeping one eye on the youkai even as she sips tea.

“I don't have any intention of hurting her,” Yukari says, then glances back to Sunshine. “Hmm, here. Would you like to see a magic trick?”

Sunshine eyes Yukari, but the woman is still smiling. It's reassuring enough to coax her to sit up a little straighter, and she hesitantly nods.

As Marisa tosses off her fourth paper airplane, with a low 'nyooooom' sound, Yukari reaches forward. It takes all of Sunshine's bravery to stay rooted to the spot as the woman touches her face, then pulls her hand back. Holding it out, she presents her empty, gloved palm. “I,” she says, and closes her hands with a flourish. When she reopens them, there's another dark gap resting in her palm, and sticking out from it, a little pink-white nubbin. “Have your nose.”

Sunshine stares at this for a second before she realizes what she's looking at. Owning a nose is kind of a recent development in her life, but she knows for sure that it's not supposed to be in some strange lady's hands. Patting her face, she finds that it is, in fact, lacking in the nose department. Her eyes go wide, and an anxious squeaking sound forces itself past her lips. Leaning forward, she reaches for it frantically.

“Hmm? Do you want it back?” Yukari says, easily raising her hand and playing keepaway with Sunshine's nose. “I don't know, I might keep it. It's cuter than my own, I have to admit.”

“That's mine!”

“Now now. Haven't your parents taught you to share?”

“Yukari...” Reimu says testily. “Don't push my patience.”

“Reimu,” Yukari replies, as Sunshine crawls onto the table to reach for the nose. She tugs her hand back further. “I will have you know that it's very important to my continued beauty to—“

“G-give it back!” Sunshine shouts.

Without prompting, Ichigo rises to her feet. The tiny doll raises both arms in the air, and instantly, blasts out dozens of tiny, multicolored projectiles. In a hail of rainbow bullets, Yukari Yakumo falls to the floor.

* * *

“It seems that I set her automated defense threshold too low,” Alice says. “She's only supposed to react like that in the case of actual threats to Sunshine's health.” Ichigo is now restrained in her lap, and the tiny doll is thrashing against her hands, looking like it's prepared to leap across the table and start beating Yukari as soon as it gets a chance.

“It serves her right anyway,” Reimu says, still sipping placidly at her tea.

In the corner, Marisa hasn't managed to say anything since the attack. She'd collapsed on top of a paper airplane, laughing hysterically, and the rumpled corner of the poor thing is still sticking out from under her elbow. Sunshine isn't sure what's so funny, but she feels a little better now. Her nose is safely back on her face, but just in case, she has one hand constantly shielding it at all times. Despite her defeat, Yukari seems to be in good spirits too, but Sunshine is pleased to note that she looks a little worse for the wear—her hat got knocked off by the barrage, and her hair looks messier in the aftermath of falling to the floor. It was kind of fun, actually. Sunshine wonders if that's what fights normally look like.

“Now that I've been punished for my sins, I hope that we can be friends,” Yukari says. When Sunshine only glares in response, she continues, “I'll make a note not to tangle with you in the future. I can see that your doll is quite the bodyguard.”

“I don't think she wants to talk to you,” Reimu says. There's just a hint of smugness in her voice.

“S-sure you wanna risk gettin' your butt kicked by a doll again?” Marisa manages to gasp out between laughter, before immediately collapsing back to the table.

Yukari takes the taunts with calm grace. “If your doll was willing to defend you so viciously, she must really like you.”

That finally strikes a chord with Sunshine, and she glances from Yukari to the still-thrashing Ichigo. Her paper is out of reach, so she has to settle for mumbling, “Do you think so?”

“I'm certain,” Yukari says. “What is her name?”

“Ichigo...”

“Hmm. I see. 'Ichigo'… do you like strawberries?” When Sunshine gives a hesitant nod, Yukari cups her hands together again. This time, when she holds one out, there's a plump, ripe little strawberry sitting in her palm. “... would you like a peace offering?”

Sunshine squints suspiciously at the strawberry, but it looks real enough. She still keeps her nose covered with one hand as she reaches for it, only to have Yukari pull it back at the last second. “But first: Reimu, could I borrow three cups?”

“Are you really going to keep doing this?”

“It will end nicely this time, I promise,” Yukari says, nudging her closed fist back away from Sunshine's grasping hands again.

“... I guess it's not my problem if the doll beats you up again,” Reimu says, and turns around to pull a few cups off a shelf. “Just try not to break these. Suika already broke half the set the last time she was here.”

“Mmh. Of course.” Once Reimu sits the cups down, Yukari scoots them closer to herself, and Sunshine reluctantly stops reaching for the strawberry. Even Marisa manages to calm down to lean forward and observe. Yukari lines the cups up in front of herself, then holds the strawberry up for display before hiding it beneath a cup. “Have you memorized which one it's under?”

This is a very strange game, in Sunshine's opinion, but it's an easy question. The three cups look nothing alike. Two of them are traditional yunomi from a matched pair, but with coloration and wear that makes them easy to tell apart. The other one, the one that Yukari hid the strawberry under, is an entirely different kind of cup, a teacup with a handle. She nods.

“Good. Try to remember which one it is,” Yukari says, and starts shuffling the cups around each other in place. Even though Sunshine knows that the cup with the strawberry is the only one that looks different, she follows it with her eyes just in case. Once the cups have orbited each other half a dozen times, Yukari stops and raises her hands away from them. “Do you know which one has the strawberry? If you find it, it's yours.”

Sunshine finds herself smiling as she leans forward. With such an easy game, she can't fail. She taps the teacup, and her wooden finger makes a soft click against the glass..

“Hmm, are you sure that that's the one?” Yukari says, with an impenetrable poker face. “You can rethink your answer if you want.” When Sunshine doesn't budge, she continues. “Very well. Let's see if you're right.” Reaching down, she grabs the cup by its base, gives it a little twist just to raise the anticipation, and jerks it up. There's nothing under it. “Hmm, too bad.”

Sunshine's eyes go wide. Furious, she grabs the cup and checks inside of it, but sure enough, it's empty. “S-she's cheating!” she squeaks, and looks to her parents for support.

“Really, Yukari, don't you think you've done enough?” Alice says, giving Sunshine a reassuring pat on the back.

“Oh, very well. Maybe I didn't explain the rules clearly.” Yukari pushes the two remaining cups forward and next to each other. “Would you like another pick?”

It helps placate Sunshine, just a little. She puts much more thought into it this time, though, studying both cups with a look of intense concentration on her face. She _knows_ that the strawberry was under the teacup, though. After much deliberation, she decides to take things into her own hands, reaching out and yanking one of the cups into the air.

There's nothing beneath it. “You must have very bad luck,” Yukari says. Pushing the last cup forward, she offers, “One last try?”

Sunshine glares at the cup, but it's really the only choice left. She's still more cautious as she reaches out, lifts it up, and finds... nothing. A tremble of moral outrage runs through her, and she glares up at Yukari.

“Well, hmm. Let's check again, shall we?” Lifting the third cup, she upends it and gives it a few shakes. “Nothing there...”

“I have to wonder if you're this sadistic with Chen, too,” Alice says.

Yukari ignores the statement and lifts the second cup. After shaking it a few times, she taps the bottom for good measure. “Nothing...”

“Y'know, Sunshine, if you wanna punch her, your mom and I will back ya up,” Marisa says.

“It isn't entirely uncalled for,” Alice agrees.

Sunshine's attention is focused on the last cup, though. The teacup, the one that she chose first. Yukari lifts it up and makes a show of inspecting the inside. “Hmm. What's this?” she says. Turning the cup over, she lowers it to the table again, then gives it a few minute side-to-side adjustments. Sunshine leans forward, gripping the edge of the table, as Yukari rests both hands atop the cup. Dramatically, she lifts it up, and strawberries pour out. Dozens of them, tumbling down over each other and rolling across the table. Sunshine snatches one up, but it's not really necessary. By the time that it finishes, the pile of strawberries on the table is more than Sunshine has seen in one place in her entire life. Yukari gives the cup a final shake, and one last berry falls to rest on top of the heap. “Well,” she says. “It seems that you were right the first time.”

Sunshine nods quickly, but her attention is still on the berries. She takes a giant bite of the one in her hand, and the rewarding, sweet taste assures her that this part isn't any kind of trick.

“Just imagine how happy she'd be if you hadn't teased her for an hour first...” Reimu says, and claims a small pile of strawberries for herself.

“You have to allow a youkai _some_ mischief during the winter. I'll be asleep and out of your hair for another month or two soon.”

“Not soon enough...”

“Sunshine,” Alice says. “Make sure to thank Yukari for the present. … even if she could have been a bit nicer about it, herself.”

Sunshine is already well into her second strawberry, with juice running down her chin. Under the circumstances, she feels even less comfortable with talking than usual. She still manages to reach over with her free hand, grab her pen, and write, [THANKS].

* * *

When the three leave the Hakurei shrine, it's barely early afternoon, but Sunshine is already tired. Normally, she'd be awake until the sun goes down, especially with a sugary snack for lunch, but today was different. Between the excitement of building Ichigo and the trip to the shrine, she's exhausted, and only the cold air keeps her from napping against Marisa's back on the flight home. She's already rubbing her eyes by the time the three walk into the cottage, and as Alice packs the small basket of strawberries off toward the kitchen, Marisa reaches down to ruffle her hair. “Think you're gonna get whatever you prayed for?”

Sunshine looks up blearily, and it takes a moment for her to remember. In all the excitement of the visit, she'd forgotten about the prayer. After some consideration, she nods. She's probably due for an adventure any day now, at this rate.

“Heh. Good. Do you need a nap?”

“Mmhm...”

“Want me to tuck ya in?”

Sunshine glances toward her bedroom thoughtfully, then shakes her head. Normally, she'd say yes, but today is special. “I need to, um. Do something.”

“Big plans already, huh? Sure. Just remember to put your paper an' stuff away before you sleep,” Marisa says, bending down to give Sunshine a kiss on the forehead. “If you make a mess, your mom will kick my butt.”

“Okay.” With Ichigo hovering along behind her, Sunshine toddles off to her room. Once her things are put away and the door is closed behind her, she sits Ichigo on the edge of the bed, then kneels down in front of her. “Do you feel smart yet?” Ichigo doesn't budge in response, and she takes that as her answer. “Um. That's okay. It took me a long time.” She's disappointed, but she tries not to let it get to her. After leaning forward to kiss the doll on the forehead, she tucks her in under the sheets, then slides into bed next to her. Within minutes, Sunshine is fast asleep.


	2. Battles

"Sunshine," Alice says over lunch one day. "How are you and Ichigo getting along?"

Sunshine pauses, halfway through an apple slice, and glances at the doll. Ichigo is sitting on the edge of the table, patiently waiting for orders. Sunshine has to swallow her mouthful of apple before she can reply. "Ichigo is a good doll."

"I'm glad you like her," Alice says. A few dolls down to sweep the remains of her own lunch away. "Do you think that you've gotten used to giving her orders?"

Sunshine nods, and decides to demonstrate. She looks to Ichigo, getting the doll's attention, then glances to her plate. With a subtle gesture, she signals Ichigo into action. Ichigo stands, and toddles across the tabletop, her tiny feet clicking with each step. She grabs Sunshine's fork—which is almost as tall as she is—hefts it into the air, then spins it around and spears a slice of apple. With that, she turns and offers the bite up to Sunshine. Sunshine takes a big bite and looks to her mother for approval.

Alice watches this in obvious surprise. "Hmm. That's... very good," she says. "How did you teach her to understand hand gestures, though?"

Sunshine frowns as she considers that. She can't really _explain_ it. It just sort of... happened. She used to be a doll. She knows how dolls think, and what they're looking for. Directing Ichigo came to her much more naturally than talking did. She shakes her head.

"Do you mean that you don't know?"

Sunshine nods.

"That's considered a very difficult technique," Alice says, still looking over the doll like she expects to spot the trick behind it. "You must get along with her very well."

Sunshine beams and pats Ichigo's head. Ichigo accepts the gesture without any reaction. Sunshine can't help but feel a little disappointed. She's very proud of Ichigo, but no matter how much she praises the doll, Ichigo doesn't give any sign of understanding it. She's sure that it will happen sooner or later, though. Sunshine subtly gestures with a fingertip, and in response, Ichigo sits the fork down.

Alice watches this, then folds her arms on the table in front of her. "How would you like to start learning to control her attacks?"

Sunshine's eyes go wide. She's _pretty_ sure that being able to make Ichigo shoot is the only thing standing between her and fighting bad guys like her parents do. After all, she already knows how to fly. Once she knows how to attack, she can go on adventures! And fight moon rabbits and dragons! She nods so forcefully that her hair bounces.

"Good," Alice says with a smile. "After you finish your lunch, we can go out and get started."

Sunshine stiffens up in amazement. After a moment to recover, she starts hurriedly stuffing apple slices into her mouth.

* * *

The two are barely a meter out the door when a very strange sight makes Sunshine draw to a stop.

The snow in the front yard is marred by a long, wide rut. It zig-zags back and forth across the lawn. At one end, near the front door, it starts out tiny. At the other end, Marisa is crouched alongside a ball of snow that's easily as tall as Sunshine is. She fusses over the snowball, oblivious to the pair.

Alice seems confused by this too, and stops mid-step. "... Marisa, what are you doing?"

"Snowman!" Marisa says, without looking back. She scoops up a double-handful of snow and presses it against the side of the giant snowball, then smooths it out with her hands. Sunshine watches this curiously.

"What does that have to do with combat practice?"

"Huh?" Marisa pauses now, and looks back over her shoulder. "Well, she's gotta have something to shoot, right?"

"I was going to use that tree stump by the edge of the yard."

"Aww, come on, it's not fun if you do that." Marisa looks toward Sunshine. "Okay, which one would you rather fight? Some dumb tree, or a snow monster?"

"Um." It seems pretty obvious, really. Judging by their stories, her parents fight monsters all the time. It's practically what monsters are _for_. Sunshine has only heard one story about her parents fighting a tree. That tree sounded kind of scary, but the stump in the back yard isn't. "Monster."

"Hehe. See? Monster's way better!" Marisa gestures her closer, and Sunshine approaches, her boots crunching through the snow. "Okay, this first ball's done, but we're gonna need three of them for it to be a proper snowman. So, what we're gonna do is..." She scoops up a big handful of snow, then compresses it between her hands. When she opens them, the snow has been compacted into a ball. She sits the ball down, then pushes it along. The snow on the ground sticks to its edges, and it grows. Sunshine peers at it, and Marisa steps away to offer it over. "Get the idea?"

Sunshine crouches down and gives the ball a cautious push, and a bit more snow sticks to its sides. She nods.

"Good! That one'll be the middle, so make it big, okay? Me and Alice will get started on the head."

Alice shakes her head with a sigh. "By the time you finish that, you'll be too cold for what we actually came out here for."

"Cold doesn't bother her much, right? She'll be fine!"

"I wasn't talking about Sunshine."

"Pff. _I'm_ a heat magician, remember? I can keep myself warm pretty much forever."

"Didn't you set your gloves on fire the last time you tried that?"

"That was a fluke!" Marisa turns and tosses a smaller snowball to Alice, who fumblingly catches it. "Here, you're better at art stuff. Make a monster head, 'kay? I'm gonna go fetch the other supplies."

* * *

It is a very scary snow monster.

It has a big open mouth, and Marisa found some pointy rocks to fill it with sharp, crooked teeth. Gnarled branches give it arms and claws, and a pair of fat red marbles give it beady eyes. On top, two broken bamboo segments give it pointy horns.

"Snow oni," Marisa says proudly, as she finishes the final touches.

Sunshine has never seen an oni in person, but it fits her parents' descriptions of them. The snow oni is taller than any of them. Marisa had to hover to sit the head on top of the body. It looks like a worthy opponent.

“Yes, it's very impressive,” Alice says. “Sunshine, are you ready to learn how to fight it?”

Sunshine glances to the snow oni again. It seems like a bit of a waste to shoot it after spending all of that time making it. She almost feels sorry for it. Her excitement for learning to fight still outweighs that, though. “Uh-huh.”

Alice nods, and moves to a spot a few meters away. Sunshine follows after her. “Ichigo's attacks aren't dangerous, but I designed her to be flashy. If you're in danger, she should give you enough of a distraction to run away. You should only do that if somebody threatens you though, do you understand? People might get angry if you use her too much.”

Sunshine nods dutifully.

“Good. Now...” Alice crouches down next to Sunshine. “I gave her a few basic commands to start with. Try telling her to attack the oni.”

It feels like a very important moment. Sunshine takes a deep breath and points at the snow oni. “Attack, Ichigo!” she says, as ferociously as she can manage.

Ichigo wastes no time. The doll stiffens up from her limp hovering posture and raises both arms. Dozens of tiny, glowing bullets in every color of the rainbow burst out and patter against the oni's front. Snow crumbles to the ground. The bullets dissipate the moment that they hit, but when the attack stops a few seconds later, the snow oni is covered in pockmarks. Sunshine gapes in amazement at it.

“Do you think you understand?” Alice says. Sunshine nods, and she smiles. “If you need to, you can also control her aim by pointing. Here.” She slides over behind Sunshine, and gently guides the girl's arm upward. “Try telling her to attack again.”

“Attack!”

Again, Ichigo erupts into a rain of tiny bullets. This time, though, Alice guides Sunshine's hand around in a sweeping circle. Ichigo pivots to follow her direction, tracing a line of bullet marks down the oni's front.

“He's lookin' pretty beat up...” Marisa says, and gives the spray of bullets a wide berth as she walks around to join the two.

“I'm going to let go, okay?” Alice says, after a few more seconds of guiding Sunshine's aim. “Take a little time and get used to doing it yourself.” She hesitantly releases Sunshine's hand. Sunshine continues to guide the doll's aim. She points it down toward the ground, and the bullets follow. A cloud of snow rises up from the impacts.

Sunshine traces the stream of bullets around, drawing a lazy figure-eight in the snow, then closes her hand into a fist. Ichigo's attack comes to an abrupt stop. Sunshine pulls her hand back carefully, afraid that she might accidentally direct Ichigo into attacking her. Ichigo stays still, though, and she allows herself to relax after a moment.

“Very good. The only other thing you should know about...” Alice scoops up Ichigo, and moves the doll out into the middle of the yard. She jogs a short distance away before continuing. “Try telling her to activate emergency mode.”

“Um.” Sunshine looks at Ichigo uncertainly. The stuff about attacks made sense, but she doesn't remember any emergencies from her parents' stories. “Activate emergency mode?”

Again, Ichigo's body stiffens up. The doll leaps into the air, coming to a stop around eye level, and the air around her erupts like a firework. Glowing bullets burst out in every direction, forming an intimidating shell of projectiles around the tiny doll. The collected light is bright enough that Sunshine has to avert her eyes, and Alice takes a few steps away to get to a safer distance. “This is only for emergencies,” Alice says. “It should work if you get surrounded, and it's easy to see, so if you get hurt or lost, you can tell her to do this and it will make it easier for us to find you. Do you understand?”

This is all a bit much for Sunshine to take in, but she thinks she understands. It's for if she gets lost or has to fight lots of bad guys. She nods.

Marisa looks between the still-firing doll and Alice. “Uh, do we really have to worry about her getting _surrounded_?”

“I'd rather her have it and not need it than get cornered and not have it,” Alice says.

“... don't worry, Sunshine, nothing's gonna attack you while we're around, 'kay? Your mom's just, uh, making sure you're safe. _Really_ sure.”

“We're not in the human village, dear. Youkai and fairies prowl around here at times. But, yes. Hopefully none of this will ever be necessary.” Alice turns to Sunshine. “You can tell her to stop now.”

Sunshine inclines her hand through a series of gestures. Even in the middle of her attack, Ichigo notices the subtle command and obeys, cutting off her attack and then hovering over to present herself to the girl. Sunshine scoops the doll up and gives her a hug.

Alice smiles at the display. “Hmm, now... for a little practice, why don't you try to use Ichigo to destroy the snowman? It should—“

“Aw, c'mon!” Marisa says, cutting her off. “We just finished him! It'd be a shame to blast him apart so quick, don't you think?”

“That was why we made him in the first place! … were you just looking for an excuse to build a snowman?”

“... so, anyway, what I'm thinking is,” Marisa says, changing the subject gracelessly. “We have a spell card duel, right? But—“

“Marisa...”

“Hold on, just hear me out! We have a spell card duel, but Sunshine can ride shotgun on my broom and use Ichigo to help out.” Marisa turns, and grins down to Sunshine. “What do you think, kiddo? Wanna have your first real spell card duel?”

“Yeah!” Sunshine's already squirming with excitement. She looks to Alice, and so many words try coming out of her that they almost jam up in her head. “Please, mom?! Like...! Like the, um. The story! With the ghost. You fought, and it was snowing!”

“Yeah! It'll be just like when we fought in the Spring Snow Incident! Except you won't end up faceplanted in the snow, 'cuz I'll tone down my firepower a little.”

“That's not how I remember it,” Alice says, in the tired voice that Sunshine has learned means that she knows she's fighting a losing battle. “Sunshine, are you sure you want to do this? It could be scary. You don't have to do it if you don't want.”

Sunshine shakes her head. “I want to have a real fight!”

Alice studies her expression, then gives up with a defeated shake of her head and a smirk. “You're going to grow up every bit as hardheaded as Marisa, aren't you? I suppose I should welcome the chance for some practice. I'll go prepare, then.” Alice turns and takes a few steps toward the cottage, then pauses. “Marisa?”

“Huh?”

“Don't think that I'll take it easy on you just because you have Sunshine is on your team. We haven't had many opportunities to practice lately, ourselves. It would be a shame to waste the chance by holding back, don't you think?”

“Hah! More like don't you come cryin' after me and Sunshine kick your butt. Ain't that right, kiddo?”

It takes Sunshine a moment to realize what Marisa is expecting out of her. She points a finger at Alice and squeaks, “Y-yeah!”

“I can see this will be a memorable fight,” Alice says. After one last smirk at the two over her shoulder, she continues toward the door. “I should only take a few minutes. If you'd like to prepare for your defeat, do it now.”

* * *

"Iiiiiiiiin this corner!" Marisa bellows. "The Pipsqueak Painbringer, the Fighter Fantastic of the Forest of Magic, the Half-Pint Hero...!" She pulls the broom into a level glide, freeing her hands for a grand gesture backward. "SUNSHIIIIIIIIINE!"

Sunshine looks up in bewilderment. Is she supposed to do something? She settles for a weak wave over to Alice, with one arm kept in a death grip around Marisa's waist. Marisa covers her own mouth with a hand and makes cheering noises.

Alice claps politely, and her dolls follow suit. "Did you spend that whole time thinking that up?" she shouts back.

Marisa ignores her. "Aaaaaaand in the other corner!" She circles Alice, gesturing to her with one hand. "Some weirdo with a buncha dolls!"

"If you're going to do it, you should do it properly!"

"Uh, fine, jeez, I dunno. The... Butt-kicker of Bucharest! The Doll Lady of, uh... I forget where I was goin' with that. She's got a really cute butt! ALIIIIIIIICE MARGATROOOOOID."

Sunshine doesn't dare to take her hands from around Marisa's waist for long enough to clap, but she directs Ichigo to do so. The doll claps excitedly for Alice. Sunshine can't even hear it over the wind. Alice shakes her head in exasperation at Marisa, but shoots Sunshine a grateful smile.

"Alright! So, how are we gonna do this?" Marisa pulls the broom to a stop alongside Alice. Alice is flanked by two dozen dolls, wielding blunt sparring weapons. Even hovering in midair, they stand in orderly lines. Even Sunshine feels a little intimidated by them. "Sunshine doesn't have spell cards, so I guess we should keep it simple. Go on the count of ten, fight 'til three hits?"

"That sounds fine," Alice agrees, and looks to Sunshine. "Are you sure that you're okay with this? If you get scared, tell Marisa and we'll stop, okay?"

Sunshine nods, and tries her very best to look brave. Alice floats closer and gives her a reassuring pat on the cheek. "My attacks will look scary, but I promise none of them will hurt you. Just try not to fall off of the broom, okay?”

“Okay...!” Sunshine redoubles her grip on Marisa's waist.

“Alright, break it up!” Marisa kicks her foot to the side, and the broom drifts a meter or so away from Alice. “Let's get started!”

“Good luck,” Alice tells Sunshine, and retreats back to her cloud of dolls.

As Marisa starts shouting the countdown, Sunshine looks over her shoulder to Ichigo. “Um. It will be hard to talk. Shoot where I point, okay?” Ichigo gives no indication that she heard, but Sunshine is used to that. She trusts that the doll will obey.

“Alright, here we go! FIVE!” Marisa bellows. Sunshine squirms and tries getting into a secure position on the broom. Ichigo hunkers down behind her. “FOUR!” Dozens of meters away, Alice is making her own preparations. The dolls fan out around her, with the nearly-invisible wires that control them catching the light occasionally. “THREE!” Marisa pulls the mini-hakkero from her belt and flips it into her palm. “Sunshine, get ready, 'cuz we're gonna take off real fast, alright? TWO!” Marisa leans forward along the broom. Alice looks just as ready, bent forward in the air like she's prepared to pounce at the two. “ONE!” Sunshine squeezes her eyes shut and tugs herself tighter against Marisa.

If Marisa shouts 'GO!' it gets lost in everything that happens immediately afterward. The broom takes off like a rocket, jolting Sunshine backward. The cold wind whips past and blasts her hair back. After a second or two of this, she hesitantly opens her eyes, and finds the world whipping past, even faster than it does when they're flying somewhere for a long-distance trip. The trees below are now a green blur. Marisa's dress flaps loudly in the wind. Sunshine looks around the sky, but she can't see Alice anywhere.

The broom drops lower, and the two sweep through a broad turn just above tree level. Past Marisa's shoulder, Sunshine can see Alice hovering in place, waiting for them. Her dolls have scattered, and show up as little colored blotches in the air. “Alright, here we go!” Marisa shouts back. “Get ready to shoot her!”

As the two close the distance toward Alice, the sky lights up with magical effects. Ephemeral spell circles trace themselves into the air around the broom, while glimmering points of light on the dolls announce that they're stockpiling magical energy. In almost the same instant, both sides cut loose. The circles around Marisa spin rapidly and start spraying out bullets, filling the air with tightly-packed helixes of projectiles. Alice sweeps her arms through grand gestures, and a dozen dolls blast out neon beams of energy.

"Hold on!" The lasers close in around them like a web, and Marisa pushes the broom through a series of sharp dodges. Sunshine's world spins around her. Clinging to Marisa's clothes, she struggles to get her bearings. Finally, she spots Alice barely ten meters away, and thrusts a finger up to point at her. Ichigo shoots a stream of tiny bullets into the fray. Already dancing through a series of complicated dodges, Alice barely notices them until the last second. They don't hit, but Sunshine still feels proud as she watches her mother sidestep them.

“We got dolls comin' in!” Marisa shoots back. Sunshine can see them, taking advantage of the broom's reduced speed to close in on the pair. Marisa continues shooting, and they fly past half a dozen defeated dolls, with their hands in the air in surrender. Three sword-wielding Shanghai dolls chase after them, though, stubbornly staying in the blind spot behind Marisa's head. Sunshine belatedly realizes that she should be shooting. She still feels bad as she gives Ichigo the command to attack. Ichigo fires a few quick bursts of bullets at them, and while the dolls try to dodge through it, one of them gets smacked in the stomach. The doll raises its hands in defeat, and it soon falls away.

The other two dolls stick with them, though, swooping through a series of curves as Marisa tries to shake them off. “Think you can shoot 'em?”

“Um, maybe!” Sunshine scowls at the remaining two dolls and jabs her finger at them a few more times. Ichigo matches each one with a burst of bullets. The dolls continue ducking and weaving through the fire until they're close enough for one to lunge at her. Sunshine yelps and ducks away.

And, the other doll takes its chance. It leaps forward while Sunshine is distracted, and jabs Marisa in the side with its thankfully-dull lance.

“O-oof, hey!” Marisa grunts. The broom wobbles through the air as she recovers.

“Sorry!” Sunshine squeaks. She peppers the air behind them with bursts of tiny bullets in retaliation, but the dolls have already finished what they came here for. They drop away from the broom, and she soon loses sight of them.

“Don't worry about it. She's only got one point on us. C'mon, let's get revenge!”

Sunshine starts to nod, but the broom whips through a hairpin turn, and she ends up cringing and pulling herself tight against Marisa again. In a matter of seconds, they screech to a halt. They're left pointed toward both Alice and the pursuing dolls. The dolls rush toward them, but Marisa already has the mini-hakkero primed and raised.

The air trembles, and a Master Spark explodes outward. A hot backdraft buffets Sunshine's face and blasts her hair behind her. Even that much is weaker than she'd expected. Marisa's shown off the attack plenty of times. It's supposed to be a heavy, booming thing that rattles her to her core. This version, though, is watered down. The many dolls caught in the beam tumble backward through the air, but otherwise seem unaffected. Even Alice, at the far end of the blast, only has to shield her eyes against the glare. Regardless, Marisa maintains a knife-edged grin through the attack, her hair billowing in the unnatural wind. “That's one to one!”

The Master Spark fades slowly, and the moment that Alice can see again, she unleashes her counterattack. With another series of exaggerated string-pulls, her remaining dolls sweep in from every direction.

A dozen multicolored streams of bullets converge on their position. Marisa rolls the broom to the side to avoid the worst of them. “Hang on! Gonna do somethin' stupid!” She leans forward, and they... stop flying. In a free fall, the broom plummets past the attackers in a second. Sunshine's eyes go wide at the brief sensation of weightlessness, which is followed by crushing weight as they pull up out of the drop. The broom creaks beneath them, and soon they're on a level course, skimming across the treetops. Marisa looks back to survey her handiwork, and Sunshine follows suit. The dolls that were caught in the Master Spark are all hovering down to join their defeated sisters beneath Alice. Sunshine feels bad for them. It hadn't looked like the attack hurt them, but she personally would have felt terrible if she'd failed Alice like that.

There's no time to dwell on that, though. Marisa looks forward again and guides the broom through a sweeping S-curve to shed some of their speed. “She's playin' serious now!” she shouts back over her shoulder. “Let's give her all we've got this time, yeah?”

Sunshine gives a resolute nod, but she's worried now. What if they lose? That would be a terrible way to start being a hero. She glances back at Ichigo and purses her lips in thought. Ichigo can't shoot very far, so she's not able to do much at the ranges where Alice and Marisa fight. She's good at keeping Alice's dolls away, but for anything else, she'd need to be closer. Sunshine wouldn't last a second if she tried flying through all of those bullets on her own, though, so how's she supposed to do anything?

They climb back up to Alice's level, and rainbow flowers of bullets fill the air. Marisa pulls the broom through a zig-zag series of dodges, and Sunshine hunkers down as the broom creaks beneath her. As they close in, she fires a scattershot burst of glowing orbs from the mini-hakkero. The attacks burst into sparks near Alice, and the dolls' attacks slow down as she focuses on weaving through them. While she's distracted, Marisa pulls the broom into an orbit around her. The mini-hakkero gleams with sharp light. A whirling store of stars blasts outward, and the broom recoils under the force of Marisa's attack. Even as Alice dodges, half a dozen dolls dart upward to meet them.

Marisa cackles with delight as she dodges through Alice's counterattack. Sunshine, though, is just doing all that she can to hang on. The entire world whirls around her in a colorful blur. She can't even get her bearings for long enough to point at Alice, let alone have any hope of hitting her. Another bullet clips Marisa, knocking her hat askew, and Sunshine squirms anxiously. One more hit and they lose, right?

She knows what she needs to do now, but she doesn't like it. She shoots Ichigo an apologetic glance, then traces out a few quick gestures. The doll obeys. Without hesitation, Ichigo leaps off of the broom and takes off on her own. In the much larger firestorm between Alice and Marisa, neither of them pay much attention to the tiny doll 

Ichigo darts toward Alice like a bullet. Alice spots the doll, but she's in the middle of a complicated attack, guiding a dozen dolls through the air. It's all the opportunity that Ichigo needs to get in close.

Sunshine hunkers down on the broom and tenses her entire body for a single shout. “E-EMERGENCY MODE!”

Alice starts backpedaling as soon as she hears the first syllable, but it's too late. Ichigo raises both arms in the air and unleashes a deluge of bullets in every direction. Barely a meter away, Alice has no hope of dodging. She can only shield her face with her forearms as she's pelted with dozens of bullets. Sunshine scores the winning hit, and the fifty-six that follow.

* * *

Once they're back inside, it takes Sunshine the better part of an hour to calm back down from her victory. Defeated or not, it brings a smile to Alice's face. It's rare to see the girl's moods stick around for long; usually, they fade within minutes unless she finds ways to keep herself excited. Alice has her theories about why this happens—the physical processes that drive human emotion, versus the much more responsive magical nature of Sunshine's consciousness—but it's not a subject that she can speak on with any certainty.

After Sunshine has relaxed enough to settle down for her afternoon nap, Alice throws her winter clothes on and walks out to her workshop. Waiting inside are the dolls that were caught in Marisa's Master Spark. Even with the weaker sparring version of the attack, they look worse for the wear. A few of their outfits are singed around the edges, and on a closer look, she finds that the pressure of the attack has damaged a few delicate joints. After the inspection, she lines the dolls up along the back of the desk, then begins mending them.

It's slow work, slower than normal. She has to flex their joints by hand and hold them in place with a vice as she makes repairs. It sucks up her focus, and she doesn't realize that the door has opened behind her until Marisa speaks up. "... you still aren't used to the new dolls, huh?"

Alice freezes in momentary surprise, then looks back over her shoulder. Behind her, Marisa is leaning in the doorway, with only a light overcoat over her dress to deal with the winter cold. "Is it that obvious?"

"A little, yeah." Marisa pushes the door closed behind her and stomps the snow off of her boots. She leans over the desk. Taking a doll's arm in her hands, she idly flexes the joint. "The strings mean you can't move very fast, right? And you basically have to stick in one spot?"

"They... do have some drawbacks, yes. They're still fine for dueling on the ground."

Alice keeps detailed records of her dolls. Between Sunshine's creation and the point when she discovered that Sunshine had become self-aware, she knows that she lost twenty-two dolls: nine destroyed by Marisa in a sparring match, five more packed with gunpowder that she purposely detonated during the same fight, six that she broke down for parts, and two who had simply worn down. Any of those dolls, with a turn of bad luck, could have been Sunshine.

So, she's made changes. These new combat dolls are simple, without many of the improvements that she's developed over the years. Their bodies are solid wood, without the gunpowder chamber and fuse mechanism that she used to put in her combat dolls. They're tethered to their strings, and can just barely move fifty meters from her if she's careful. Now that she's taken the strings off, they can't move at all. And, most importantly, there's nothing approaching awareness in their heads. They're simple magical automatons, nothing more.

It's a small price to pay for the peace of mind. But it does come with limitations. Seeing Marisa's skeptical glance, Alice continues. “I'm still refining my techniques with them. They're weaker, but direct control allows me to use more unpredictable attacks. Since they're not enchanted to follow orders, I can use stronger combat enchantments on them... It will be fine.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Marisa says, not sounding convinced. “Things have been pretty calm lately, anyway. I guess we're not gonna need to fly off and solve an incident any time soon.”

“You mean that _you_ won't need to,” Alice says, her voice tempered with distraction as she paints over a just-repaired chip on a doll's knee. “One of us needs to stay home and watch Sunshine.”

“She can come too!” Marisa protests, in that half-joking tone that always makes it hard for Alice to tell if she's serious or not. She steps closer and watches Alice work over her shoulder. “It'll be like a family outing!”

“Yes, I'm sure that she could learn a lot about practical archeology by watching you carry off bags full of our opponents' belongings between fights.”

“I'll nab her some presents. We'll call it an early birthday.” Marisa goes quiet for a moment as Alice puts the finishing touches on the knee, then leans in to wrap her arms around her waist, grinning more deviously. “Besides, my back gets cold without somebody sittin' behind me.”

"And whatever happened to 'I'm a heat magician, I can keep myself warm forever'?"

"It's more fun if you do it."

Marisa leans closer in and buries her face against the side of Alice's neck for a few kisses. Alice gives a slight sigh of annoyance, but still reaches back and ruffles her hair. "Did you come out here to tell me something, or are you just here to distract me?"

“I actually did have something to talk about, but I dunno, distractin' is turning out to be pretty fun...” 

“You're going to have to pick one of the two, dear.”

“Hm.” Marisa lingers for a bit longer, then reluctantly lets go of Alice. She steps around and hops up to take a seat on the edge of the desk. “Well, it's a surprise! Take a guess!”

“Or you could just tell me,” Alice says, and blows on the paint on the doll's newly-mended knee.

“Hmm...” Marisa leans back on the desk, grinning up at the ceiling. “Tell ya what, we'll compromise. First hint! I ran into someone in the village today.”

Alice looks up from her work. “... are you really going to make me guess?” When Marisa's expression doesn't falter, she crosses her arms and considers this. “Reimu?” A shake of Marisa's head. “Kosuzu?” Another shake. “... it couldn't have been Sakuya, or you wouldn't be smiling... Keine?”

“One point for the pretty lady!”

“Is that all?” Alice says, until slow realization sparkles in her eyes. Marisa's grin only grows in response. “... then what did she say?”

“Hmm? I told you you've gotta guess, didn't I?”

Normally, a response like that would infuriate Alice, but now, she's too focused on the topic. “Does she think Sunshine is ready for school?”

“Well, she didn't put it quite like that, but...”

Alice steps closer. “But what, then?!”

Marisa waits, savoring Alice's anticipation, before she caves in. “... she does think Sunshine might be ready to start school, yeah. She wants us to bring her in sometime. Get a good look at her for herself before she decides, you know?”

Alice closes the last of the distance between them, pulling Marisa into a tight hug and letting out a low sigh of relief. “She's going to be so excited...”


	3. School

Sunshine isn't excited. Not one bit.

“You'll be able to make friends with other children your age,” Alice says, for what feels like the fiftieth time this week.

She offers up Sunshine's bag, and Sunshine slides it onto her shoulder. Sunshine doesn't respond to the reassurance.

“Keine is nice,” Alice continues. “I'm sure that you'll get along with her.”

Sunshine frowns and looks down at the floor.

“And you'll learn a lot of new things.”

It's been like this ever since her parents started talking about school again, a week ago. They seem very convinced that she'll like it if she just gives it a chance. Sunshine isn't so sure. An entire day away from her parents sounds like a really long time. All kinds of things could happen in an entire day, and she's supposed to spend all that time with a bunch of strangers?

The morning has been a blur of activity so far—waking up earlier than usual, having breakfast while Alice packed a lunch box for her, and now getting dressed to go out. To add insult to injury, they won't even let her bring her toy sword with her.

Sunshine wants to write her response, but she doesn't have paper handy right now. Reluctantly, she mumbles, “I learn things here.”

Marisa makes an attempt. “I bet all the other kids will be really jealous of Ichigo. Probably nobody else has a doll as neat as her.”

Sunshine has to admit that that part sounds nice, at least. She glances up to Ichigo, who is hovering expectantly next to her like always. She doesn't really understand why she'd want somebody to be jealous of Ichigo, but she does like the idea of getting to show her to more people. She's proud of Ichigo. Ichigo is a very good doll.

“And, Marisa continues, “if we're goin' into the village for school every day, we can stop by the candy store and stuff sometimes too.”

“She's only been eating for a matter of months,” Alice says. “You don't need to ruin her diet just yet.”

Sunshine cheers up for a moment, until she remembers the caveat: to get that candy, she has to go to _school_. She frowns and crosses her arms. Her puffy winter coat sleeves make this a little difficult, but she does the best that she can.

“Sunshine,” Alice says, and crouches down to eye level with her. “I know that this might seem scary to you right now, but it's important. You know that we wouldn't do anything to hurt you, right?”

Sunshine gives a tentative nod.

“Good. Can you be brave for us?”

“Okay...”

“Thank you.” Alice leans in and gives her a kiss on the forehead. “We need to leave soon. Keine is probably waiting on us.”

* * *

From the air, the human village is a checkerboard of snow-topped buildings, casting long shadows on the muddy streets in the morning sunlight. From her spot on Marisa's broomstick, Sunshine looks down at it uncertainly. Her few prior visits to the village were all fun ones—one time, she bought her sword, and another time, Marisa took her to a restaurant and let her eat a meat bun as big as her head. She still can't help but feel uncomfortable whenever they visit, though. There are a lot of people she's never met here, and the streets are a blur of things she's never seen before.

They swoop down and land in front of the schoolhouse, one of the biggest buildings in the village. Other children are already making their way inside, and in the distance, she can hear barking dogs, merchants shouting about their wares, the clattering of carts, all the sounds of city life. Sunshine wraps her arms around Ichigo and holds the doll protectively to her chest.

They don't follow the other students, though. Marisa leads the way around the building, and they enter through a side door. Inside is a small room, a mess of books and scrolls. A woman is kneeling at a cluttered table in the middle of the room, looking over a stack of papers, and she doesn't even glance up as they enter. “You're ten minutes late,” she says distractedly.

“Come on, that's practically the same thing as on time!” Marisa says.

“We're sorry,” Alice says, and shoots Marisa a warning glance. “Sunshine was... reluctant to come. We had some delays getting out the door.”

“That's understandable. Most children are worried about their first day of school.” The woman makes a few marks on the paper at the top of the stack, then looks up from it. Her eyes go right to Sunshine, and she smiles. “You must be Sunshine, right?”

Sunshine is already hiding behind Alice, but she peeks out past her to give a reluctant nod.

“This is Ke—er, Miss Kamishirasawa,” Alice says, giving Sunshine a slight push toward her. “She's the head teacher here. Don't worry, she's friendly.”

Sunshine scrutinizes the woman. She has a weird hat, but other than that, she looks pretty normal. She has a pretty dress, and it and her hair are blue, which is a pretty color. She doesn't _look_ very scary. Reluctantly, Sunshine eases out from behind Alice. “... hi...”

“Hello, Sunshine. Your parents have told me a lot about you.”

Sunshine isn't sure how to respond to that, so she doesn't.

“Would you like to sit down? It's okay if you'd prefer to write instead of talk.”

Sunshine nods again, and Miss Kamishirasawa gestures at the spot across the table from her. She hurries over, pulls a notebook out of her new bag, and sits Ichigo on the table before kneeling.

“I have one of my assistants handling the class this morning,” Miss Kamishirasawa says, looking up to Alice and Marisa. “I'll need some time with Sunshine to get an idea of where her education stands. If that doesn't turn up any surprises, she can meet the other students and sit through classes this afternoon. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good to me,” Marisa says, then hesitates. “Is it alright for me and Alice to hang around until then? You know, for moral support and stuff.”

“Sunshine, would you like that?”

Sunshine quickly nods.

“It's settled, then.”

Miss Kamishirasawa leafs through a different stack on the table, then pulls out a small book. She opens it up, then gives Sunshine a reassuring smile over it. “I'd like to ask you some questions to find out how much you already know. Does that sound okay?”

Sunshine nods again.

“Can you write your response?”

Sunshine opens her notebook, writes, [YES], and holds it up.

“Very good. Your penmanship is excellent.”

Sunshine glances bashfully aside. She's not used to being complimented by strangers. It's a weird feeling, but nice. [THANKS.]

“How about 'dog'? Can you write that?”

Sunshine does, and the questioning continues. Soon, the page is filling with a one-sided record of the conversation. [DOG. YES. WHAT'S THAT MEAN? 2 2 2 2 2 ~~2~~ 10\. SIX. FIVE. I DON'T KNOW. NO. TWO.]

It's a back-and-forth dialogue that fills the page with answers, then overflows onto the next. It covers every topic Sunshine's ever thought of, and some that she hasn't. It's a fun challenge, though. Within ten minutes, she forgets her earlier nervousness and leans forward over the notebook, her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth as she concentrates on her answers. She's still writing her answer to the final question when Keine leans back and announces, “I think I've seen enough.”

“Oh?” Marisa's voice comes from somewhere behind Sunshine—at some point, she got so focused on the questioning that she lost track of her parents. That's a first. “How'd she do?”

Miss Kamishirasawa glances down at the paper thoughtfully. “Sunshine, how old are you?”

Sunshine freezes in indecision. After a moment, she looks back to her parents for help.

“That's a... complicated topic,” Alice says. “We learned that she was self-aware about five months ago, though.”

“... I see. Well, her reading and writing skills are at the level of my second- or third-year students, as is her math. Have you been tutoring her in them?”

“Reading and writing, yes. As for math...” Alice hesitates. “You might say that it comes naturally to her.”

“'Naturally'?”

“My dolls all have some basic mathematic skills. If you ask a doll to sew two buttons apiece onto five outfits, you don't want to have to specify that it will need ten buttons.”

“She's understood math since her creation, then?”

“The basics, yes. As well as understanding speech. The reading and writing, though, are her own doing.”

Miss Kamishirasawa looks stunned for a moment before she remembers to reply. “... well then. Her history knowledge is very basic, but that's the only area where she isn't ahead of my younger students. I feel like she'd fit in well with the second-years.”

Marisa says, “Huh, how old is that?”

“Mostly six- and seven-year-olds.”

Marisa gives Sunshine a pat on the back. “Hear that? Not bad for a five-month-old.”

Sunshine looks up at her in confusion.

“I think that should be a good match, yes,” Alice says, looking relieved. “It's the age I had in mind when I crafted her new body.”

“Speaking of which...” Miss Kamishirasawa looks back to Sunshine and extends a hand across the table. “Sunshine, can I please see your hand?”

Sunshine looks down at the outstretched hand uncertainly, then hesitantly reaches out and rests her hand in the teacher's palm. Miss Kamishirasawa's hand is almost twice as big as hers, warm and soft. She cups Sunshine's hand in it, then uses her other hand to coax Sunshine's fingers apart. Carefully, she inspects the delicate joints where the segments of her fingers are connected, then nods and releases it. “Thank you.”

Sunshine isn't quite sure what that was about, but she's glad it's over. She pulls her hand back and clutches it to her chest. Alice and Marisa, though, are looking on apprehensively. “So?” Marisa says.

“It won't take long for somebody to notice that she isn't human,” Miss Kamishirasawa says.

Marisa opens her mouth to interrupt, but Miss Kamishirasawa raises a hand to stop her. “That being said, physical matters aside, she has a human parent. Half-youkai are generally accepted in the village, and I don't see any reason Sunshine should be any different. If anybody would like to complain... well, I'm a therianthrope, myself. I'd like to see them try to make that argument to me. Besides, I've never taught a child who learned to write by the age of five months. It should be an interesting experience.”

“Yeah!” Marisa leans forward, and before Sunshine can dodge, gives her hair a double-handed ruffle. “Hear that? You're officially a schoolkid now.”

* * *

It takes a long time for Sunshine to say goodbye to her parents, mostly because she doesn't _want_ to. She still doesn't like the idea of being left with this woman she just met, in a building full of strangers. They give her several rounds of reassurance and half a dozen hugs apiece, and she's still not comfortable with the idea.

Even so, she soon finds herself being led through the building by Miss Kamishirasawa, with her new notebook held tight to her chest. Ahead of them, she can hear somebody talking. They step through a doorway, and...

The room beyond has more people in it than Sunshine has ever seen at once. More people than she was sure existed, even. There must be two dozen students kneeling on the floor, and at the front of the room, a man is speaking to them. The kids themselves are a wide range of ages, from a bit younger-looking than Sunshine to near-adults. A few of them glance up at her as they enter, and she shrinks back against the wall.

Miss Kamishirasawa has a brief, quiet conversation with the man at the front of the room. He steps aside, and the entire class goes silent as she prepares to speak.

“Good morning, class,” she says.

“Good morning, teacher,” the students reply in unison.

It is the loudest thing that Sunshine has ever heard. Miss Kamishirasawa doesn't seem daunted, and continues. “We have a new student with us today,” she says. “This is Sunshine Margatroid. She will be joining us from now on.”

A less coordinated wave of greetings and conversation rises from the students, and after a few seconds, Miss Kamishirasawa raises her hand to quiet it down. “Sunshine will be the first non-human to attend this school. Her mother is an accomplished youkai hunter, and I've personally made sure that she isn't a threat to anybody before admitting her. I'd like you to think of Sunshine as a normal student. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Miss Kamishirasawa,” the class replies. Mostly. There are a few whispered, ongoing conversations now.

“Good.” Miss Kamishirasawa glances back to Sunshine. “Sunshine, is there anything you'd like to say?”

Sunshine freezes in indecision. She has no idea what to say to so many people.

“What's with the doll?” a child calls from near the back of the room.

Miss Kamishirasawa glances down to Ichigo, sitting on Sunshine's shoulder. “Would you like to introduce your friend?”

This, this is a little less overwhelming. With a simple hand gesture, Sunshine directs Ichigo to hover forward and bow to the class. “Her name is Ichigo,” she says quietly.

This draws a more excited round of conversation from the students. Sunshine can't help but feel a little proud. It's just like Marisa said—they can all see what a good doll Ichigo is.

Miss Kamishirasawa raises her hand again. This time, the conversation takes longer to die down, until she gives a pointed glance toward the still-talking students. Only once they're all silent does she turn back toward Sunshine. “Sunshine, the third row has a desk open. Please take a seat. Class will begin soon.”

Sunshine nods, but hesitates for a moment before she steps forward. Every student in the room is watching her, and now she has to walk into the middle of the group. She inches her way forward one step at a time until she reaches the front row, then hurries down the aisle. Only once she's behind her desk does she manage to relax, but she can still feel their eyes on her.

Fortunately, Miss Kamishirasawa starts the lesson before long. She tells a long story about a bunch of people who fought at a castle, because they didn't agree on who should run the country. They all had a lot of people helping them, and some of them had guns. After the fight, one of the men was able to take charge of the entire country. The story is interesting, but Miss Kamishirasawa doesn't make all the fun sound effects when she talks about fights, like Marisa does. Sunshine isn't sure why Miss Kamishirasawa is telling them about this, but most of the other children are writing it down, so she does the same thing in her new notebook.

The story goes on for a long time, and it's followed by another story, about all of the things that the man did once he was in charge of the country. Just when Sunshine is getting convinced that class might go on forever, Miss Kamishirasawa glances at the clock and gives a single sharp clap of her hands to get everybody's attention. “That's a good stopping point for now,” she says. “Class will resume in an hour and a half.”

The room fills with sound as all the students rise from their desks and start rushing out of the building, and Sunshine looks around in confusion. Is it time to go home? She doesn't think her parents are here yet, and she's not sure she can make it all the way back to the house by herself.

There are only a few other students left in the room when Miss Kamishirasawa approaches her. “Sunshine, it's time for lunch. Did your parents pack one for you?”

She nods.

“Good. You have the next hour and a half to do whatever you want. Why don't you eat outside and get to know some of the other children?”

And now she's supposed to go outside, without even having an adult nearby? That sounds pretty scary, too. Even so, Sunshine stands and heads toward the door, and Ichigo pulls the lunch from her bag and follows.

Outside, it's warmed up since the morning. The snow is quickly melting under the sun, and most of the students aren't even bothering with coats. A big crowd of them are heading out the gate into the village, while others are still in the courtyard behind the school, eating, talking in small groups, and playing games. Sunshine decides to stay close, and finds a shaded spot under the school's awning to sit down. She opens her notebook in front of herself, while Ichigo starts unpacking her lunch.

Sunshine's only been drawing for a matter of seconds when a voice interrupts her. “How come your doll can move?”

She glances back over her shoulder. Behind her, two girls are watching curiously as Ichigo lays the chopsticks out next to her lunch. “Um,” she says. “Magic.”

“Are you a youkai?”

Sunshine turns to face them and shakes her head.

“Come on, you can tell us! Miz Keine said you're not a human, so you've gotta be a youkai, right?”

“Maybe she's a fairy,” the other girl says.

“Fairies have wings, stupid!”

“Well, um, my mom said that one time _she_ saw a fairy, and it didn't have any wings.”

“That's dumb. I bet she's a ghost or something.”

“Nobody'd let a ghost come to school! She'd eat everybody or something, and—“

Sunshine thinks back to the examination that Miss Kamishirasawa gave her. She raises her hands and gives her fingers a demonstrative wiggle.

Both girls instantly go silent, watching them. “Your hands are weird,” one says.

Sunshine glances at them. She's never considered this before. Her fingers aren't like her parents', or Reimu's, or Miss Kamishirasawa's, but this is how they've always been. They're not weird at all. She shakes her head again.

A clicking noise on the floor behind her draws Sunshine's attention away. She looks back to find that a boy has grabbed the hem of Ichigo's dress, and the doll is scrabbling against the floor to try escaping. “Stop it...!” Sunshine squeaks.

“I'm just lookin' at her!” the boy says. He doesn't resist as Sunshine tugs Ichigo away and into her lap.

“Her hands are made out of wood,” one of the girls informs him, peering at Sunshine curiously.

“I still think she's a fairy,” the other says. “Betcha five hundred yen.”

“You don't even _got_ five hundred yen!”

“Do too!”

“Nuh-uh!”

Sunshine shrinks back from the three children, until she's up against the wall of the building. She really should just say it—'I'm a doll,' it's not even a very long sentence—but under such heavy questioning, by the time she puts the sentence together on her lips, the conversation has already moved on.

The questioning continues, now with all three participating. “Can the doll do any tricks?”

“How come your hands are weird?”

“Are you afraid of talkin' or something?”

“My dad says ghosts can't talk, so I bet that's—“

The girl is cut off mid-sentence, as a small rock smacks into his back with a dull thud. Two more thuds announce that both of the others have been hit with them, too. All three yelp in surprise. They spin around in unison, and...

The only person behind them is a single boy, sitting against a post five or six meters away. He has a book open in his lap, but he's looking their way. He hurries to look back at his book before they notice, but he's too slow.

“Did you throw those rocks?!” one of the girls demands.

The boy flinches at that, but he shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Then why're you looking over here?!”

“You were really noisy...” he mumbles.

“There isn't anybody else back here!” the boy who'd been questioning Sunshine says, stepping forward with a huff. “It had to be you!”

The boy with the book shrinks down against the post slightly, but holds his ground. Just barely loud enough for Sunshine to hear it, he says, “I didn't throw any rocks, but you're scaring the new girl. You should leave her alone.”

The two stare each other down for a few seconds. Sunshine can't see the first boy's face, but the boy with the book looks like he could burst into tears at any second. He's not the one to back down, though.

“Whatever. It's just a dumb doll anyway.”

With the boy's surrender, the two girls follow suit. All three trudge off, grumbling between themselves. Sunshine and the boy with the book watch them go, and then he stands and slowly walks toward her. Sunshine watches him uncertainly, but lets Ichigo out of her lap. He's short. Even shorter than Sunshine is. His hair is a golden-white mop that almost hides his eyes, and he sort of looks like he'd prefer it if they _were_ hidden, since he uncomfortably glances away before he speaks.

“They didn't hurt you, did they?”

She shakes her head.

“Good.”

He lingers there, shifting from foot to foot uncertainly, for a few seconds before he speaks again. “Is it true?”

She cocks her head questioningly to the side. When that doesn't get the response she wants, she says, “What?”

“That you're not a human.”

Sunshine studies him for a moment, then slowly extends her hands. She gives her fingers a wiggle to show them off, like she did for the other kids. He watches curiously. It doesn't feel as overwhelming this time. Maybe because he isn't asking her so many questions that she can't even think about them all, like the other group of kids did.

“I'm a doll,” she says.

The boy somehow looks relieved at that. “... want to see something neat?”

It's a cryptic offer, but he has her attention. She gives a hesitant nod.

“You've gotta promise not to tell anybody.”

She nods again.

“You promise?”

Another nod.

“Well...” He kneels down in front of her, giving the courtyard a few anxious glances. Now it's almost empty apart from a few other students, most of whom are busy with their own affairs. He glances aside, and...

A tail explodes out from his back, right above the top of his pants. It's the same golden-white color as his hair. He gives it a single flick and looks over to make sure that Sunshine's noticed it, and then the tail shrinks back down to nothing. Altogether, it's only there for a second or two.

Sunshine reaches out to the spot where the tail had been, but there's nothing there. She frowns at it thoughtfully.

“I'm not a human either,” he says. “I'm a fox.” He looks a strange blend of embarrassed and proud of this fact.

Sunshine gives up on searching for the tail and considers this. It doesn't confuse her as much as it might. Her parents have told her stories about this kind of thing before, youkai disguising themselves as humans to do stuff in the village. In those stories, though, the shapeshifters are usually the bad guys.

He doesn't _seem_ like a bad guy, though. Well, apart from one thing.

“Um,” she says. “You threw rocks at those kids.”

He pauses, looking surprised at her lack of reaction, then rubs at the back of his neck and glances away. “They were being annoying.”

Sunshine can't disagree with that. Her parents gave her a very long talk about school yesterday, and one of the most important lessons in it was that fighting other kids isn't allowed. Maybe it's okay in this case, though. None of them got hurt, after all.

“Humans are like that,” he says, with a lot of world-weariness for a second-grader. “If they even know I'm here, they'll try to exterminate me. So you can't tell anybody about me, okay? Not even the teacher.”

“Okay...”

He studies her face for a moment before nodding in return. “Good,” he says. “Since we're not humans, it would be dumb if we didn't stick together.”

He seems to be expecting a response, but Sunshine isn't really sure what she's supposed to say. She gives a slight nod, though, and it's enough to leave a satisfied smile on his face. After a few seconds, he glances uneasily away, then takes a seat along the wall near her, pulls out his book, and resumes reading as if nothing happened.

Sunshine isn't sure what to make of this, but she soon gives up on figuring it out and goes back to drawing. Nobody bothers her again for the rest of the lunch break.

* * *

After lunch, the classroom is loud with conversations. Miss Kamishirasawa stands up in front of the room, and it takes her several minutes to get everybody to quiet down enough for her to start talking again. This time, her assistant leads several of the older kids out of the room, and instead of telling stories, she talks about math. It's about different ways to add numbers, mostly. Sunshine would really rather hear more stories about people fighting each other, especially since most of what Miss Kamishirasawa is talking about seems obvious. She tries to follow along for a while until she gets bored. Then, she stops paying attention and finishes the drawing in her notebook instead.

When she's done with math, Miss Kamishirasawa talks about youkai instead. Mostly, she talks about tsukumogami and how to avoid them. The lesson is a lot more interesting than the one about math, but Sunshine still thinks it's pretty weird. When her parents talk about tsukumogami, they sound friendly and harmless. When Miss Kamishirasawa talks about them, she makes them sound dangerous, and says that it's important to dispose of tools properly to avoid creating them.

After being confused by this for a short time, Sunshine remembers that her parents basically aren't scared of anything, so it only makes sense that they can make friends with youkai that even other adults are afraid of.

And then, Miss Kamishirasawa gives a single clap of her hands and announces, “That covers today's lessons, so I'll let you out a little early today. Fourth and fifth-years, please come up to get tonight's worksheets. If you're on cleaning duty, remember that tonight is the courtyard. Everybody else, I'll see you tomorrow.”

The class shouts a response, but this one is rather more disorganized and ragged than the greeting at the beginning of the day. Already, most of them are scrambling out of their seats.

After a moment of confusion, Sunshine rises from her seat, gestures for Ichigo to open her bag, and puts her notebook and pen back into it. She slides the strap onto her shoulder and follows the stampede of children out of the room. By the time she steps outside, some of the other students are already running home or playing in the streets. A few small groups are standing around in front of the building, chatting with each other.

And across the street, her parents are waiting.

Sunshine takes off barreling across the street, so quickly that Ichigo can't even keep up. She tackles Alice's waist in a hug, hard enough to make her take a stumbling step back.

Alice loops an arm around her to return the hug. “Hello, Sunshine.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Marisa slides in next to Alice and scoops Sunshine up into a hug. Sunshine clings to her just as tightly. “How was school?”

Sunshine rests her head on Marisa's shoulder and considers this. She really did survive an entire day away from her parents. She's still not sure how she feels about school, though. That was a lot of time to spend sitting around and not doing anything fun, and dealing with other kids is hard. The stories about people fighting each other were kind of interesting, at least.

“School is weird,” she says.

“Yeah, it's pretty weird. What'd you learn about?”

“Um. Adding numbers. And tsukumogami.” She pauses to string together a much longer sentence than she's used to. Her parents don't rush her. It's one of several reasons that she finds it a lot easier to talk to them than other people. “And a long time ago. A bunch of people had a fight at a big castle and, um. Some of them switched to the other side. And that side won.”

“Well, see. Sounds like a pretty productive day to me. It's always useful to know about youkai, and you need to know math and stuff if you wanna do magic.”

Sunshine isn't so sure about that. She's seen her parents do a lot of magic. It does involve scribbling things on paper sometimes, but mostly it involves a lot of chanting and glowing symbols that float in the air. Adding numbers together isn't even _kind_ of like those. Still, the thought that some of that stuff might help her become a hero faster lifts her spirits a little.

“Did the other children give you any trouble?” Alice asks.

Sunshine considers this for a moment. For now, she settles on answering, “Kids are weird too...”

“Other children can be _very_ weird,” Alice agrees, with a slight smile. She leans over Marisa to give Sunshine a peck on the forehead. “I know that it might take a while, but you'll make some friends soon enough, okay?”

Sunshine still isn't sure why she's supposed to be so eager to make friends in the first place, but she'll figure that out another time. For now, she nods.

“Good. I'd like to talk to Keine for a few minutes, but I don't see any reason to make both of you wait around for me.”

“Gotcha,” Marisa says. “Me and Sunshine will see you when you get home.”

She lowers Sunshine to the ground, and she and Alice dance through a brief exchange of goodbyes and kisses. Once Alice walks off, she looks back down to Sunshine. “How about it? Ready to go home?”

“Mmhm.”

“Or...” Marisa glances across the street, and hesitates until Alice is far enough away to be well out of earshot. Then, she leans in conspiratorially. “We could stop off at that candy shop on the way back and get something to celebrate your first day of school.”

Sunshine's eyes go wide, and she nods excitedly.

“Good!” Marisa pulls her broom from its spot leaning against the wall, then takes a seat on it. Sunshine hovers up to settle into her usual spot against Marisa's back and wraps her arms around her.

“I'm feelin' like something fruity, but I heard lately they found the stuff to make liquorice, too,” Marisa says. “What're you in the mood for?”

“Um. I don't know what liquorice is...”

“I guess there's still a lot of candy you haven't tried, huh? In that case, it isn't fair to make you pick without even knowin' what you're getting. Guess we just don't have any choice but to buy a little of everything.”

Before Sunshine can argue, Marisa kicks off the ground, and the broom hovers up into the air. Sunshine tightens her grip around Marisa's waist as it takes off like a rocket, headed toward home and also the candy shop.


	4. Babysitter

Sunshine has only been going to school for a couple of weeks, but she thinks she's mostly gotten the hang of it.

The subjects range from boring (math, most of which comes so naturally to her that she's still confused about why they have lessons in it) to exciting (stories about people fighting on boats in the ocean, which is a lake that's a thousand times bigger than Gensokyo.) She does her best to pay attention, but it's hard, and sometimes she draws pictures in her notebook instead of listening to the lessons. She'd been doing this for a few days before she spotted another kid's notebook and saw that she wasn't the only one who does this sometimes. That makes her feel better.

Every day at recess, Sunshine sits along the back wall of the school and eats or draws or watches the other kids play. Usually, the fox kid takes a seat somewhere next to her. He reads, and sometimes comments on her drawings, or tells her about the other kids. It's better than sitting alone, she thinks.

And usually, when she leaves school, Marisa is waiting to fly her home. Today, though, she finds both of her parents waiting for her.

Sunshine runs across the street as soon as she sees them, tackling Alice into a hug around the waist. Alice strokes her hair. “Good afternoon, Sunshine.”

“Hi.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Marisa steps forward and scoops her up. Sunshine's used to that. She wraps her arms around Marisa and clings to her, while Ichigo hovers up alongside her. “How was school?”

“Um.” Sunshine considers that, and her hand itches for a pen. Today they learned about people coming on boats to trade things during the Tokugawa Shogunate. It's a big dizzying mess of concepts, and even harder to talk about. To-ku-ga-wa-sho-gun-ate. It sounds like a lot of syllables even when Miss Kamishirasawa says it. She settles for, “We learned about people buying stuff. On boats.”

“Sounds pretty boring.”

“It sounds _interesting_ ,” Alice says, raising her voice slightly as she corrects Marisa.

“Why are...” Sunshine looks between them. “Um. You're both here.”

“What, we can't both come to pick you up?” Marisa retorts. Sunshine has to admit, she can't come up with a good counter-argument. “... you're right though, it's a special occasion. Er...”

She trails off, glancing to Alice. Alice says, “Sunshine, Marisa and I would like to ask you for a very important favor.”

Sunshine looks to her questioningly.

“Yep, you heard her,” Marisa says. “See, uh, the thing is... me and your mom have some really important stuff we need to do tonight. You know all our stories about fighting youkai?”

Sunshine nods.

“Well, we've got a friend who's going to do some really dangerous stuff tonight, and she might get attacked by some youkai. So, she wants me and Alice to come along to help fight 'em.”

This is a very exciting proposal so far. Sunshine stiffens up in mounting excitement, a smile spreading on her face.

“... _and_ , that's too dangerous for you. If we go, you can't come along.”

“... I wanna go...”

“We know you do,” Alice says. “But it will be very dangerous, and we don't want you getting hurt. Do you remember how scary it was when you lost your hand?”

Sunshine reluctantly nods.

“This could be even scarier. I'm sorry, but you can't come with us if we go. That's why we're asking you for a favor.” Alice steps closer to fuss with Sunshine's hair, smiling to her. “Do you think you'd like to spend the night at the shrine? You like visiting Reimu, right?”

“Er, about that...” Marisa says. “I stopped by and talked to her, but it sounds like she's pretty busy tonight, actually.”

“... ah. She is?”

“Yeah. Er, don't worry, though, I've got a backup plan! How'd you like to stay somewhere even better than the shrine, Sunshine?”

* * *

The flight from the village is a little weird. They head back in the direction of the house, so close to the right route that Sunshine recognizes the scenery. At some point, though, Marisa turns the broomstick aside, and they follow one of the thicker paths that winds toward the Forest of Magic. The occasional house still dots the land below, but they're so far apart that Sunshine barely gets to see one before the previous one fades out of sight, and they only get rarer the farther they go. After a while, an even bigger building comes into view, and Marisa steers toward it.

It's the second-weirdest building that Sunshine has ever seen. It's an old wooden building, pushed up so close to the trees that some of them grow partway over it. Sitting in front is a heap of old junk, and Sunshine doesn't recognize any of it—there are weird machines made out of pipes with big spindly wheels, metal boxes with glass fronts, triangular signs that say 'STOP,' even bigger metal boxes with doors on them, and dozens of other oddities.

She peers at them curiously as they make their way inside, where there are even more. The inside of the place is almost as packed as Marisa's old house was. Most of the walls are partly hidden by shelves or leaning merchandise, and little islands of stuff dot the floor. On the wall right inside the door, a man grins down at her from a poster that reads, “OIL CHANGES HERE.” She scoots away to put Alice between the poster and her.

Across from the door is a counter, and sitting behind it is a very tall man. Sunshine can only see the very top of his head, since he has a newspaper open, and doesn't even look over it as they enter. “Good afternoon, Marisa,” he says. “I hope that you're here about the money you owe me.”

“Huh,” Marisa says. “How'd you know it was me?”

“I learned to recognize you by your footsteps years ago. Call it a defense mechanism.” He calmly folds the paper closed, then pauses as he sees his other two visitors over it. His eyes settle onto Sunshine, and he suddenly looks much more interested. “Is that who I think it is?”

“Yep.” Marisa beckons her forward, but Sunshine stays clinging to Alice's side for the moment. “This is Sunshine. Sunshine, this is... Uncle Rinnosuke.”

“Uncle?” Alice asks.

“Uncle?” Rinnosuke asks. He doesn't sound displeased by the idea.

“I mean, close enough, right? You always seemed like an uncle kinda guy to me.”

“You do know that I'm older than your father, Marisa.”

“Yeah, well, that stuff's weird with youkai.” Marisa turns back and offers Sunshine a hand. “C'mon, he isn't scary. Probably even more harmless than that teacher of yours.”

Rinnosuke looks like he resents this statement, but lets it slide for the moment. Reluctantly, Sunshine steps forward to take Marisa's hand, and Marisa coaxes her toward the counter. Rinnosuke leans forward to inspect her, adjusting his glasses.

“Your craftsmanship is excellent as always, Alice. I'd barely know that she isn't human if it weren't for the hands.”

“Thank you, Rinnosuke, but she's our _child_. Please try not to talk about her like she isn't here.”

“... of course.” He looks back to Sunshine. “It's nice to meet you, Sunshine.”

Sunshine gives a shy nod.

“I've been wanting to meet you for a long time.” He glances up to Marisa. “... and it's taken you long enough to bring her, I might add. What's the special occasion?”

“Well, about that...” Marisa rests an arm on the counter and leans in, like she's about to pitch him a very lucrative offer. “Since you were itching to meet Sunshine and all, and I know you're so good with kids, I was thinkin' we'd cut you a special deal and let you have Sunshine all to yourself tonight. Pretty generous, huh?”

Rinnosuke doesn't look like he agrees. “Are you going to tell me what this is about, or not?”

“We need a babysitter,” Alice admits. “I'm sorry. Everybody else we know nearby is either busy tonight, or not good with children.”

“Or they're werewolves and stuff,” Marisa adds. “It's a full moon, after all.”

Sunshine glances between the adults as they talk. She's always kind of impressed at how many words they can say so quickly. It seems like it should be very tiring.

“And why,” Rinnosuke says, “do you need a babysitter on such short notice?”

“We got word from Patchy that this big meteor fell nearby this morning. Metal from those things is useful for some really powerful spells and stuff, so—“

“So you're ditching your child so that you can salvage some,” Rinnosuke finishes dryly.

“No,” Alice says. “We're going with Patchouli to retrieve it, and helping her fight off the local youkai and anybody else who wants the meteorite. In exchange, she's forgiving our debts to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.”

“... oh.”

“Sunshine has about half a kilo of silver in her... also, uh, some of it, Sakuya didn't _technically_ say I could have,” Marisa says. “It's, um. Not really a little debt.” After that comment, though, she perks back up, grinning and giving Rinnosuke a hearty pat on the shoulder. “So that's why we'll be counting on you, _Uncle_ Rinnosuke.”

“You do know that just calling me her uncle doesn't mean that I have to accept,” Rinnosuke says, but gives in with a sigh. “But very well. I can watch her tonight. You'll pick her up tomorrow morning, then?”

“Of course,” Alice says, and hesitates before saying, “There are probably a few things we should tell you, though.”

* * *

Despite Rinnosuke's reassurances that he knows what he's doing, it takes twenty minutes for Marisa to coax Alice toward the door. Even then, Alice is still giving instructions to him the whole time. “Her bed time is at nine PM,” she says. “She can stay up a little later if she's done her homework, but please try to enforce it.”

“Of course,” Rinnosuke says. “I go to sleep around then, myself."

“And please remember that she draws her energy directly from food. She's already had two meals today, so a small dinner should be plenty. The more that you feed her, the longer she'll be—“

“Yes, I think I get the idea.” Rinnosuke steps around the counter and lays a hand on Alice's shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile. “She'll be fine, I promise. I had to watch Marisa a few times when she was around this age. I'm sure that Sunshine is more well-behaved.”

“Hey, I only set your shoes on fire that once,” Marisa says. “But you're probably right. Sunshine's about the sweetest kid out there, on account of our awesome parenting skills.” She crouches down and pulls Sunshine into a tight hug. “Isn't that right, Sunshine?”

Sunshine doesn't quite understand the question, but gives a tentative nod.

Alice moves in for the next hug. “It will only be for one night. We'll be back to pick you up first thing in the morning, okay?”

“Okay...”

Marisa says, “Yep. Maybe we'll bring you back some souvenirs. Depends what kind of youkai we beat up.”

After another few goodbyes, the two finally, reluctantly, head out the door. Right up until the end, Sunshine secretly hopes that they'll change their minds and take her home, but they don't. The door closes, and she's left alone with Rinnosuke.

He steps up and smiles down at her. Up close, he looks impossibly tall, maybe the tallest person she's ever met. From somewhere near the ceiling, he says, “Well, it looks like it's just the two of us now. Would you like a toy to play with?”

Sunshine gives a cautious nod.

“Good. They're over here.”

Rinnosuke leads her deeper into the shop. It's a little dark and cramped, but it has the slightly dusty smell that she's learned to associated with Marisa's old house. It's kind of nice, actually. The shelves are filled with things she's never seen before. Some of them are sparkling and new, while others have a patina of dust that upsets every cleaning instinct she has.

He stops in front of one of the shelves and studies it for a moment before saying, “Ah, here we are. This shelf is mostly toys, I think. Take whatever you'd like.”

She looks over the shelf's contents. Even here, most of them are things she's never seen before, but some of them make sense after she thinks about it for a few seconds. There are a few balls in there, although some of them have strange patterns. There's some kind of big weird leather glove. There are a couple of bricks made out of a shiny material she's never seen before, and a haggard-looking stuffed bear that only has one eye.

Near the bottom, though, is a doll. At least, it looks kind of like a doll. It's a squat humanoid, but all of its joints are at sharp angles. Its body is mostly made out of boxes, with a few shiny domes for eyes and a nose.

She leans in to inspect to the almost-doll. Rinnosuke crouches down alongside her to look at it. “Ah, that's an excellent choice, if you ask me. Do you like it?”

She gives an uncertain nod.

“Here, feel free.” He offers it over, and hesitantly adds, “You could even keep it. It's been sitting on my shelf for years. I'm not sure if it's going to sell any time soon.”

Her eyes go wide with surprise, and she looks back to the toy. Slowly, she reaches forward and takes it by the arms.

Its arms are very, very dusty. She lets go, and her fingers come away grey. Distressed, she tries to shake the dust off.

“Is something wrong?” Rinnosuke asks.

She holds her hands up to show him. He looks over them, confused. “Did you cut yourself?”

Sunshine shakes her head. “Um! Um. It's dirty.”

“... oh.” He glances between her hands and the robot, as if only now making the mental link between the two. He holds it up for inspection, and frowns at the layer of dust covering it. “I guess it's been longer than I'd thought since I dusted. Well, that's easy to deal with. One moment.”

Rinnosuke sits the robot down and steps through the doorway to the back of the shop, leaving Sunshine and Ichigo alone in the storefront. On the other side of the door, she can hear him opening cabinets and shifting things around. It takes a minute or two for him to return, carrying a small stack of rags.

“I might as well do the whole shelf while I'm at it,” he says, and crouches down in front of it. He's barely settled into place before Sunshine grabs a rag from the pile. Ichigo follows suit.

“Ah, you don't need to help,” he says. “I can...”

Rinnosuke trails off. Sunshine is already hard at work, polishing the shelf and sending a cloud of dust into the air. Ichigo settles onto it higher up, tackling the big leather glove. Sunshine is so focused, she barely even notices that he said anything, anyway.

“Well,” he says. “If you want to help, I'll welcome the assistance.”

Once she starts dusting, Sunshine can't help but spot dozens of things that bother her. There's a bookcase, and some of the books are upside down or backward. There's a spider web in the window. For some reason, a shovel is leaning in the corner, and there are still clumps of dirt laying around it. If she had a team of dolls with her, she'd tear the place apart until it was as spotless as Alice's house. Since she only has herself and Ichigo, she settles for what she can do right now. Rinnosuke, looking slightly guilty, tries to convince her that she doesn't need to clean for him, but she isn't about to be stopped now. She doesn't slow down until the shelf is spotless, and even then, some tarnished spots are bothering her.

“Well, that was a surprise,” Rinnosuke says, looking over her handiwork. He runs a fingertip across the shelf and looks impressed when it comes away free of dust. “You did a good job, though. Thank you.”

Sunshine is still reluctant to stop, but she pulls the cloth back for now and nods. The compliment draws a smile out of her.

Rinnosuke looks between her and the freshly-cleaned shelf a few times. “It's hard to believe that Marisa raised somebody like you. She rides around on a broom all day, but I'm not sure she knows which end you use for cleaning. She's been like that ever since she was your age, I suppose.”

Sunshine pauses and considers that. It's weird, imagining Marisa at her age. The other kids at school are hard to understand sometimes. They jump in puddles and don't even care that their clothes get dirty. They run around and shout and make more noise than Sunshine had ever known a human could make. Her parents are way easier to understand. That works out though, she supposes. Most adults don't make much sense either. Her parents have probably just been better ever since they were children.

Still, though. Pretty much the only people who really knew _her_ when she was little were her parents, which means...

She looks up, studying Rinnosuke. “Are you her dad...?”

“Ah? Er, no.” Rinnosuke straightens up, looking just a little embarrassed as he fusses with his glasses. “We aren't related. I've known her since she was very young, though.” He draws himself up to his full height, smirking proudly. “I made her mini-hakkero, and helped with some of her early magical studies. I doubt she'd be where she is if it weren't for me.”

Sunshine squirms with disbelief as she processes this idea. The idea of Marisa having to rely on somebody else is downright silly. “Um. She's really strong,” she says, making sure that he knows just who he's talking about.

“She is, isn't she?”

Sunshine still isn't sure that he understands the full weight of his statement, but he acts like he's telling the truth. She's still a bit uneasy as she looks back to the shelves. The one on the other side of her is just as dusty as the first one, and Ichigo is already halfheartedly swiping a rag across its surface. Sunshine leans in to help, picking up a weird helmet and wiping it off. The dust on it is so thick that she can feel it clumping up beneath the cloth.

Rinnosuke watches this, conflicted. “You really don't need to do that, you know.”

Sunshine shakes her head and keeps going. Rinnosuke sighs. Before he can step in, though, another voice comes from the doorway to the back of the shop.

“Oh, you're employing children now? Don't you think that's a little shameless?”

It's a familiar voice, and it makes Sunshine tense up. There, standing in the doorway, is a lady in violet clothes with blonde hair. Sunshine remembers that her name is Yukari Yakumo. She also remembers how much she teased her at the shrine. She takes a step away.

“Hello, Yukari,” Rinnosuke says, as if this were perfectly normal. “And no. This is Marisa and Alice's daughter. I'm watching her for them, but it seems like she's intent on cleaning the shop.”

“A likely story,” Yukari says. 

“It's the truth.”

“In any case, I've refilled your kerosene. This should be the last load for the winter, I think.”

“Thank you,” he says, and dryly adds, “I expect that you can take your payment on your way out.”

“What, don't you enjoy my company?” Yukari asks, mock-wounded.

“I wouldn't know about your company, but I'd prefer it if less of my stock disappeared after your visits.”

For just a moment, Yukari actually looks annoyed. Then, she straightens up, a smile spreading on her face as her eyes settle onto Sunshine. “Well, if you're tired of paying for your imports, I suppose I could pay you for a change.”

“... what?”

Yukari advances on Sunshine. There's a closed parasol in her hand—was it there before?—and she gives it a lazy spin, tapping the tip against the floor at the end. “Oh, please don't worry about it. I have just the thing in mind.”

Sunshine steps backward even faster than Yukari advances, but she only has so much room in the cramped shop. Soon, her back is pressed to a wall. She shifts in place uneasily.

“Yukari,” Rinnosuke says, “I don't know what you're on about, but I'd prefer it if you left Marisa's daughter out of it.”

“Ahh, it's fine. I just need to grab my payment, and Sunshine and I are already acquainted. We're the best of friends, aren't we Sunshine?”

Sunshine isn't sure if there's a right answer to that question. She squeaks, and barely manages to carry out the hand signs to signal Ichigo to hover in front of her. Ichigo raises her tiny hands defensively.

“I really am going to have to ask you to stop,” Rinnosuke says.

“This won't take long.” Yukari steps closer, and leans right over Ichigo. Pressed to the wall, Sunshine tries to decide whether she should activate the doll's emergency mode. Yukari reaches for her ear, Sunshine's eyes follow her hand every centimeter of the way...

And Yukari pauses, giving a melodramatic sigh of relief. “Ah, yes, I was right. That's where I misplaced it.”

Yukari slowly draws her hand outward, and Sunshine doesn't dare to move. Soon, though, she sees something out of the corner of her eye, and inclines her head just a bit in that direction to take a look. From her ear, Yukari is pulling out an entire cake. It's on a platter, and it's the biggest dessert that Sunshine has ever seen, with fat ribbons of icing around the corners and a crown of strawberries jutting from the top. Yukari pulls it back far enough for Sunshine to see, then looks down at it, tutting. “Silly me. I meant to put it in my pocket and it ended up in Sunshine's ear instead. These mistakes do happen, you know.”

Sunshine pats at her ear frantically, but thankfully, there's no hole in it big enough for a cake to come out of. But how did a cake get there in the first place?! She isn't sure, and it bothers her. If cakes start coming out of her head all the time, that will be really weird.

“You didn't need to torment the girl,” Rinnosuke says.

“And yet, you didn't do anything to stop me. But, here, this time _I_ will pay _you_ , since I've apparently been such a bother. And conveniently enough, it's almost your dinner time, isn't it?”

Rinnosuke looks at the cake, deadpan. “I'm not sure what you're playing at, but I don't believe for a second that you're giving me a free cake instead of asking for payment.”

“Whether you believe it or not, it's still happening,” Yukari says sweetly. “Now, why don't we set the table so Sunshine can have a slice of cake?”

* * *

Usually, when Sunshine has sweets at home, Alice rations them carefully. Not Yukari, though. Yukari makes a show of cutting her the biggest, most generous wedge that she can justify. It's almost the size of Sunshine's head, a gooey slab of confectionery. Rinnosuke gets a rather smaller slice, and Yukari herself, none. Once she's laid out the cake, she steps back from the table and bows with a flourish. “Dinner is served.”

Rinnosuke pokes at the cake, like it's a puzzle that he just hasn't figured out yet. “Are you going to talk to me about your _actual_ payment?”

“My, so suspicious. But no. I think I'll be quite satisfied with this.” Yukari smiles sweetly. “Consider it a gift from me to you. And Sunshine, of course.”

“Right.” Rinnosuke doesn't sound like he believes this for a moment.

“With that, I must get back home, I'm afraid. Ran is performing some tasks for me tonight, and I need to check in on her.” Still smiling, she gives another bow, and like that, she vanishes.

Rinnosuke scowls at the spot where she'd been, then sighs. “She probably stole something again.” He looks back to Sunshine and forces a smile. “Well, we might as well eat it anyway. I have to admit, it's been a while since I had something this decadent.”

Sunshine has been eating for weeks, but really sweet things still taste so good that it's sometimes scary. So, she eats the cake carefully, in small, measured bites. While Yukari was cutting it, she'd fished her notebook out of her bag. Now, she doodles with her free hand while she eats. Tonight's picture is of her parents. She wants to draw whatever kind of monster they're probably fighting, but she isn't sure what kind of monsters like fallen stars. Instead, she draws a really big monster rabbit. Every time Marisa talks about going to space, she mostly mentions fighting rabbits, so a rabbit is probably pretty close.

Rinnosuke watches this from across the table, with a mix of curiosity and bored detachment. “You've already met Yukari before?”

Sunshine nods without looking up from her drawing.

“I thought so. She seems to enjoy tormenting you.” He snorts lightly at this. “It looks like we're her preferred victims.”

Sunshine looks up from the drawing, staring at the cake in deep thought. She hates to admit it, but even though Yukari's been a little weird, she's never hurt her. And... She flips her notebook to the next page and writes, [BUT SHE GAVE ME CAKE.]

Rinnosuke only looks confused by this for a moment, partially because he's reading upside down. “Well, I suppose she did...”

[AND STRAWBERRIES]

“Strawberries?”

[AT THE SHRINE]

“Ah. Well, maybe that's so, but I still don't think it justifies teasing a child. Honestly, I'd give the woman a piece of my mind, but even for an adult, she's scary.”

Sunshine nods, and the conversation ends. She finishes her cake, too, swallowing the last big bite of it. It lets her focus on the picture, while Rinnosuke gathers up the plates and busies himself around the kitchen. Sunshine decides that the monster rabbit needs to look scarier, so she adds big bat wings on the back.

While she's drawing, it creeps up on her. It takes her a few minutes to notice that she's tapping her foot on the floor. Soon, she's squirming in her seat, fighting constant impulses to do even more. She tries to keep herself calm as she flips back to the writing page, slides to the floor, and walks over to Rinnosuke.

“Ah?” Rinnosuke pauses in wiping a plate clean and looks down to her. “Do you need something?”

“Um,” she says, and squirms from foot to foot. “... um.”

“... you don't need to use the bathroom, do you? I hadn't thought that you could.”

Sunshine shakes her head desperately, and settles for writing in the notebook. She barely has the patience to finish writing before she flips it around. [PLAY]

That doesn't make Rinnosuke look any less confused. “Well, you're still welcome to play with the toy robot. Or any toys that you brought, of course.”

She shakes her head again. [DRAGON GAME]

“The... dragon game?”

She nods.

“I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the rules for that one.”

[PLEASE. DRAGON GAME PLEASE.]

He hesitates for a moment, then shakes his head with a soft laugh. “Well, when you ask so nicely, I can hardly say no, can I? Very well. You'll need to teach me the rules, though.”

* * *

There is a problem.

Usually, Sunshine and Marisa play the dragon game, or something equally exciting, every day after dinner. It helps her burn off her extra energy, and after thirty minutes or so of running around and whacking Marisa with a wooden sword, she's usually tired and ready to start getting ready for bed.

Today, after forty-five minutes of that kind of thing, she's still so energetic that she feels like she might explode. It doesn't help that Rinnosuke isn't very good at being a dragon. When Marisa is the dragon, she chases Sunshine all around the yard, putting up a good fight before she ends up standing in place, stomping and growling, and lets Sunshine slay her.

Rinnosuke doesn't do that. Mostly he shies away from the sword and gives halfhearted growls. He keeps holding onto his glasses while he dodges her attacks, like he's afraid they might break. The one time he gives her a good chase, he has to stop for a few minutes at the end to catch his breath.

“Sunshine,” he says. “Don't you think that we've played enough?”

Sunshine reluctantly stops whacking him with the stick that she's using as an imaginary sword. She really doesn't feel like stopping. She feels like she needs to be running and screaming and dancing and fighting all at the same time, and she can barely stay in one spot. Rinnosuke doesn't seem like he's having much fun being the dragon, though. She reluctantly nods.

“Good.” He straightens up with a sigh. “If you still want to play, maybe we can do something with the robot toy. That should be a bit less...” He rubs at the spot where she'd been hitting him. “... violent.”

They head inside, and Sunshine sits down on the floor, while Rinnosuke grabs the robot toy from the shelf. “You got so distracted by the dust earlier, I didn't even get a chance to show you this toy's best feature.” He sits it down on the floor and carefully poses it, with one arm raised and pointing in her direction. “Please observe.”

Smirking confidently, he presses a small button near the base of the robot's arm. Its fist flies off and smacks into Sunshine's chest. It doesn't hurt, but she goes wide-eyed, staring at it. “Ah!” She picks up the severed fist and looks at it. “You hurt it...”

“No, I don't think that's the intention. It's a special attack. I've talked to experts on outside world toys, and they tell me that this sort of thing is a common weapon for robots.” Rinnosuke looks pretty proud of himself for knowing this bit of trivia. He takes the fist and slides it back into the arm with a soft click. Then, he aims it at Ichigo and shoots again. The fist hits the little doll in the stomach before clattering to the floor.

Ichigo isn't hurt, but Sunshine quivers in outrage at this aggression. Rinnosuke starts lining up another shot, and she springs for her feet, gesturing for Ichigo to dodge. Soon, they've developed a new game. Rinnosuke tries to shoot Ichigo with the robot, and Sunshine guides Ichigo through dodging. She gestures energetically, jumping and waving her arms, still brimming with more energy than she knows what to do with. The robot is a scary monster, and Ichigo is the heroine coming to beat her up and resolve the incident. At least, that's what she tries to imagine. Ichigo isn't very good at pretending to be a heroine.

She's pretty good at dodging though, but not perfect. The fist ricochets off Ichigo's stomach again, and Sunshine decides that this offense can't be forgiven. She points at the robot and squeaks, “Attack!”

Ichigo obeys, firing a stream of multicolored bullets at the robot. Rinnosuke just barely manages to jerk back before they hit it, sending the robot clattering across the floor. The monster is defeated.

Rinnosuke studies this in silence for a moment, looking bewildered. “Your doll can shoot?”

Sunshine nods proudly. “Her name is Ichigo.”

“Of course. Er, either way, please don't have her shoot in here again. Some of the merchandise is very fragile.”

Sunshine pouts, but accepts this.

“Actually...” Rinnosuke glances toward a clock on the wall. “It's nearly your bedtime. I suppose that your parents usually read you a bedtime story?”

She nods again.

“Ah, well, you're in luck. I just happen to carry a variety of exotic stories from the outside world.” He gestures toward the book shelf. “Would you like to pick one?”

After the second round of playing, Sunshine isn't quite bursting with energy, but she isn't the least bit tired, either. She doesn't think that Rinnosuke wants to hear that, though. She pushes herself to her feet and toddles over to have a look. Some of the books on the shelf are still upside down, and it sends a twinge of annoyance through her. Also, the titles don't make much sense. Some of the books are thin, with names like Station Master Cat and the Choo-Choo Train. Some of the books are thick and have names like The Wife of Jidaiya. Neither of these titles sound very fun to her. After some thought, she grabs a magazine named Review of Medieval Warfare.

Rinnosuke looks uncertain when she holds it up to him. “Are you sure this is what you'd like to read?”

She nods, and turns it to show him the cover. “Um. There's a sword on the front. I like it.”

“Well...” He glances over it again, clearly reluctant. He caves in, though. “I suppose it can't hurt. If nothing else, something this boring should help you fall to sleep faster, right?”

It doesn't.

Rinnosuke leads her to a small bed that's sitting in the hallway near the back of the building. She's pretty sure that it's just another piece of merchandise, but it's still pretty comfy when he tucks her in. He settles onto a stool next to the bed, and does his best to read the magazine to her like a bedtime story. It turns out to not be very good, though. Most of the articles aren't about sword fights. They're about really boring things. They sound a lot like Miss Kamishirasawa's history lessons, actually. Somewhere around the third article, Rinnosuke glances up from the magazine. “It's been a while,” he says with a yawn. “Are you sleepy yet?”

She shakes her head.

“Well... I guess a few more shouldn't hurt.”

Sunshine doesn't think the articles are very interesting, but she doesn't want to tell Rinnosuke that and hurt his feelings. He reads a few more of them. Halfway through an article about a bunch of people digging up old helmets somewhere, he gives a bigger yawn and shakes his head. “I really don't know if I can keep doing this. Are you sure you aren't sleepy yet?”

She nods.

“... I'll finish this article, at least.”

He doesn't finish the article, either. Another few paragraphs in, and he's half-mumbling his sentences, losing his place occasionally. Then, he trails off and slumps down in his seat. Within seconds, he's soundly sleeping.

Sunshine looks at him, confused. She's seen people fall asleep plenty of times before—she watched Alice go to sleep dozens of times when she was a normal doll, after all—but she's never seen somebody fall asleep in a chair, let alone by accident. “Um,” she says. “Um.”

She leans forward and gently pokes Rinnosuke's shoulder. He stirs in his sleep, but doesn't respond.

She considers this. Rinnosuke really did seem like he wanted to sleep, so it would be mean to wake him up now. Instead, she settles back into the bed and closes her own eyes, trying to fall asleep. It's no use, though. She's still wide awake and full of energy. She starts fidgeting out of boredom, and soon, she can't take it anymore. She rises from bed. Ichigo dutifully hovers over from her resting spot near the foot of the bed.

“Shhh,” Sunshine tells her. “Don't wake him up. Let's go do something fun.”

* * *

Sunshine used to spend every night awake by herself, so she's used to this. It's really fun, actually. She sits down in the middle of the floor and draws a dozen different pictures. She does her homework. She plays a game with Ichigo and the toy robot, where the robot launches its fist and Ichigo tries to catch it before it hits the floor. She looks through some of the books, but most of them don't make much sense. She cleans more of the shelves, but gives up on it when she starts feeling pretty tired.

She's just starting to think about going to bed again when somebody knocks on the door.

Sunshine freezes, in the middle of drawing another picture. Rinnosuke is still asleep. People almost never knock on their door at home, but she knows that it means somebody wants in.

They knock again.

Sunshine scoops the toy robot up in her arms and cautiously approaches the door, with Ichigo trailing along behind her. If it's a monster, between the robot and Ichigo, she should be pretty safe. She leans in close to the door. “Um. Who is it?”

“... Sunshine?” It's Alice's voice. “Sunshine, it's us. Can you please open up?”

“Oh!” That's way better than a monster. Sunshine has to fumble with the lock a few times, but soon, she manages to open the door.

Outside, thte sky is just starting to light up. Marisa and Alice are standing there, both looking pretty tired and a little dirty, but smiling. “Good morning, kiddo,” Marisa says... then pauses, glancing around the shop. “Where's Rinnosuke?”

* * *

“There's your problem,” Alice says, sighing. “You fed her cake for dinner.”

“ _Yukari_ fed her cake for dinner,” Rinnosuke corrects her, but without much force to it. He's still half-asleep after being shaken awake, with his clothes rumpled and his glasses on crooked. “I was an innocent bystander.”

“Yes, but you shouldn't have let her. I told you last night, Sunshine isn't a human. The more food you give her, the longer she'll be awake, and if it's something like cake...”

“I understand,” Rinnosuke says, and glances to Sunshine. “She doesn't seem to have minded it, though.”

“I had fun...” Sunshine says. She still isn't sure why her parents like sleeping so much. Sleeping is okay, but she'd play all night if she could.

“You look kinda tired now, though,” Marisa says.

Sunshine gives a reluctant nod. She's finally running out of energy, even though the sun is coming up.

“We'll have breakfast when we get home. That should give you enough energy to get through the day,” Alice says. She doesn't sound like she likes the idea of Sunshine being awake for two days straight.

“Who's your new friend there?” Marisa asks.

Sunshine holds the toy up. “It's a robot.”

“Huh. Kinda cute, I guess.”

“Yes, it's cute,” Alice says. “I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, though.”

“Ah, well,” Rinnosuke says, with a smile growing on his face. “I actually wondered that, myself. I've read quite a bit on the topic, if you'd be interested in hearing it.”

“Hmm? Well, if it's interesting enough to research, then I wouldn't mind.” Alice doesn't seem to notice the fact that Marisa is giving not-so-subtle, frantic shakes of her head.

“Ah, well.” Rinnosuke pushes his glasses up his face, suddenly looking much more awake. “I don't suppose you're familiar with its etymology?”

“I'm not, no. Is it from—“

Alice is cut off when Marisa elbows her side. She's still shaking her head, and mouths, “Don't.”

Rinnosuke doesn't seem to notice, though. He's already deep in thought, and soon he begins. “Well, 'robot' is merely a loanword. I believe that the original foreign word is the English ' _rowboat_ ,' which refers to a small boat that needs oars to move. In ancient times, of course, such boats were known as triremes. Now, it's important to remember that kings and emperors would often travel on such vessels. We can ask the important question: Would such a dignified official be willing to put up with the needs of a crew of servants? I think that the answer is no; sooner or later, they would have tried to automate the role. That leads, of course, to a poem called _Metamorphoses_ , in which there is a story of...”

* * *

Five minutes pass.

Rinnosuke is still going.

“... and while they are known to turn to dust if the name is removed from their mouth, it's safe to say that this rarely happens in a manufacturing environment. Now, if we consider the drawbacks of—“

“A-ah, Rinnosuke,” Alice says, cutting him off. “We _do_ need to get home soon, I'm afraid.”

“... ah?” Rinnosuke blinks as his mind is dragged back to reality, kicking and screaming. “Are you sure? This next part is fairly interesting, I think.”

“Ah, yes, we really should. We wouldn't want Sunshine to fall asleep on the way, after all.”

“Oh, of course. If you'd like to hear the rest, let me know sometime. I think there are some interesting parallels to your work. Actually, I did find one story of a clockwork doll that—“

“I'll be sure to let you know,” Alice says, cutting him off again in a tone so polite and interested that even Sunshine can tell it's faked. “Sunshine, don't forget to thank Rinnosuke for the new toy.”

Sunshine looks up to him. He doesn't look quite so intimidating now, at least. Even so, thanking people already feels really hard. It takes a few seconds for her to work her way up to, “Thanks for the robot...”

“You're welcome,” he says. “You're free to stay here whenever you'd like, Sunshine. You're a very polite young lady, considering who you were raised by.”

“He's talking about you, dear,” Alice says, then glances back to Sunshine. “Right, then. Let's head home.”

They're barely out the door before Marisa grins over to her. “We've got lots of new stories to tell you, too. Last night we had to fight a tengu, a werewolf, _and_ one of Yukari's pets.”

Sunshine fights the urge to hop up and down in excitement. Before she can say anything, though, a big yawn forces its way from her mouth.

“Ah, yeah, still tired, huh? Here.” Marisa scoops her up and sits her on her shoulders, riding piggyback. “Comfy?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Good. We can call this your bedtime story, then. So, anyway, we're walking through the forest, right? And we hear the brush moving behind us, and we turn around, and there are these red eyes...”

Sunshine leans forward excitedly, trying to absorb every word of the story that she can. At some point during the trip, though, she nods off and falls asleep. That's still okay, because there's plenty of time to hear the story once they get home.


	5. Magic

Today, math class is at the end of the day. Math class at the end of the day is the worst.

Sunshine sits at her desk, struggling to pay attention, but it's even harder today than usual. A few lines at the top of her notebook attest to her attempts to take notes, but past that, there's nothing but drawings. She's finishing up the fifth in a series, stick figures fighting off evil youkai, when Miss Kamishirasawa finally reaches the end of the lesson. “There are just a few more things before I dismiss you.” She closes her book and smiles, stepping around her desk. “It's warming up earlier than normal, so I'm told that most families are going to start their planting next week.”

An excited murmur runs through the room, and Miss Kamishirasawa raises a hand to cut it off. “As usual, we'll have a two-week break for planting season. _But_ , that isn't until next week. There are still four more days of class. Tonight, I'd like grades four and up to do ten long division problems for homework. Grades one through three...”

But the class just keeps growing louder in its excitement for the break, and kids rise to their feet and hurry toward the door. Sunshine stays in her seat, squirming indecisively. Leaving class before they're dismissed is _breaking the rules_ , an act that chafes every instinct she has. On the other hand, she can't hear anything Miss Kamishirasawa is saying anyway. Maybe she's already dismissed them, even?

When the first few students head out the door, Sunshine can't contain herself any longer. She leaps to her feet and takes off running toward the front of the classroom, and Ichigo scrambles to keep up with her. The other students are hurrying out, too, but she's the fastest of them, weaving between slower kids and ducking around the corner. Once she's out the door and in the clear, she breaks into an outright sprint, her feet thumping on the floor with every step.

Sunshine flies out the school's front door. The recent rain has left a stretch of puddles in the middle of the street, and she leaps across them with a slight boost from her flight abilities. Marisa's standing on the far side of the street, and Sunshine doesn't dare slow down as she approaches. Instead, she slams into Marisa at full speed, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug.

“O-oof. Pretty eager to leave, aren't you?”

“The break!” Sunshine squeaks out, then pulls back to look up to Marisa. “Um! The break. It's next week.”

Marisa pauses for a moment, then tilts her head back, looking up toward the sky to hide her expression. “Break, huh? Well, that'll be nice. You'll have lots of free time.”

Sunshine gives an urgent shake of her head. “You said I could learn...”

“Huuuuuh. Learn what? You can learn lots of things, y'know.”

Sunshine's in no mood for these kinds of games. She wiggles impatiently, bouncing up and down on her feet. “Magic!”

“Oh, huh. Did we talk about something like that?”

Sunshine also doesn't have the patience to liner her words up before she says them, so she ends up ahead of herself, stumbling over her own tongue. “Um. Um! You said... you said I could learn it... during planting season...”

“Ohhh, yeah, I did say somethin' about that, didn't I?” Marisa grins, and the frantic energy drains out of Sunshine's body, replaced with relief. Marisa crouches down and scoops her up in a hug. “Pretty early this year. I'll have to run by the mansion tonight and make sure Patchy knows we'll be coming.”

Sunshine gives an excited nod.

* * *

The broom ride home feels longer than usual, because Sunshine has a secret building in her chest, like a ticking time bomb. When they land, she bursts straight through the door and leaps onto Alice.

“A-ah!” Alice's gasp from the impact sounds less feigned than Marisa's had. “What's gotten into you?”

“Magic!” Sunshine gushes. “Um! The break!”

“I guess it's starting early this year,” Marisa says, tossing her hat onto its peg by the door.

“It's planting season already? Well, I'm glad for you,” Alice says, then pauses, looking down to her. “... you need to take off your shoes, though. They're all muddy.”

Sunshine glances back. Sure enough, she didn't even remember to take off her shoes before she came inside. She goes stiff with embarrassment. “Sorry...!”

She rolls over off Alice and gestures for Ichigo to clean up the clumps of mud she left across the living room, then peels off her boots. Even this small delay feels excruciatingly long. The second that the last lace is undone, she tugs them off, hurries over to dump them by the door, then leaps back on top of Alice. “Magic!”

“I'm glad that you're excited,” Alice says, resting a hand on the back of her head. “But you still have a whole week to go. If you act like this the whole time, you're going to be too tired to learn anything by the time your lessons start.”

Sunshine pouts, but dips her head in a nod of understanding.

“And remember that it takes a very long time to get good at magic. You won't be flying around shooting fairies a week from now.”

Sunshine nods again.

“I'm gonna teach you to do a Master Spark as soon as you're good enough, though!” Marisa says, flopping down in the seat across from the two. “I've got a field picked out for practicin' and everything.”

Sunshine jolts upright, wiggling with excitement. Alice sighs and pats her head soothingly, shooting Marisa a pointed look. “I don't think she needs to learn how to Master Spark any time soon, even if she could.”

“But!” Sunshine squeaks. She's so excited that making words is harder than usual. “Um! I'll only shoot bad guys! And. Um!”

Alice calms her down with a kiss on the forehead. “You have a long way to go until you're ready for that. Let's focus on the small things for now, okay?”

* * *

Sunshine's so excited that she looks at the clock every few minutes for the rest of the day, counting down the hours until the day ends, leaving her with one less day to wait until she can start learning magic.

It's all she'll talk about at breakfast the next morning. Or, rather, write. With her thoughts tumbling from her head, it's the easier way to keep up with them. [CAN I MAKE DOLLS?]

Alice glances over at the paper. “Making dolls doesn't quite work the same way as other magic,” she says, giving a half smile as she straightens Sunshine's hair. “I can teach you when you're older if you want, though.”

* * *

Sunshine goes to school, and spends the whole day drawing herself shooting star-filled lasers at bad guys. She shows them to Marisa as soon as she's out the door, with a note already jotted below it. [CAN I START LEARNING NOW?]

Marisa chuckles and bends down, giving her a firm half-hug. “You've still got two more days of school. Besides, like we said before, we've got a tutor lined up for ya.”

Sunshine pauses and fusses in her bag looking for a pencil. Ichigo finds it and helpfully offers it up. [CAN YOU TEACH ME?]

Marisa gives a sheepish laugh. “I'm not much of a teacher. Trust me, it's better this way. Patchy's a friend, though. She won't hurt you, I promise. You liked Miss Kamishirasawa, right?”

Sunshine gives a reluctant nod.

“Good. Cheer up, kiddo. This time next week, you'll be shooting lasers like nobody's business.”

* * *

Two more days of school, and what's even worse is that they're followed by the weekend. The night before the lessons, Sunshine's biggest regret is that she has to sleep now, and she can't stay up all night to be ready the moment that her time comes.

It doesn't stop her from making sure that she's the first one to wake up, though. Before she's even out of bed, she sends Ichigo to start getting her clothes ready. While she does that, Sunshine runs into Alice and Marisa's bedroom, screeching to a stop just short of the foot of their bed. “It's morning!”

Marisa groans and stirs, but doesn't raise her head yet. Alice pushes herself up on an elbow, blinking the sleep from her eyes, and glances toward the window. The first hints of sun aren't even showing past the canopy of the Forest of Magic. Alice looks from the window, to the handful of Hourai dolls that are already making their morning preparations, to Sunshine. “It isn't even time for you to get up yet...” she says, sounding slightly bewildered.

“Um. I asked the dolls... to wake me up first.”

“You shouldn't be able to do that,” Alice murmurs, half to herself.

Even now, a slight pang of shame shoots through Sunshine. It doesn't last long. She trembles with excitement. “Can we go soon?”

“Sunshine, we still need to have breakfast first.” Alice sits up and yawns, rubbing an eye. “And we can't just drop in on Patchouli first thing in the morning.”

“'s Patchy,” Marisa mumbles from somewhere beneath a pile of blankets. “Not like she has a sleep schedule.”

Alice ignores this comment and forces herself to look more awake, smiling to Sunshine. “How about we cook a big breakfast to celebrate? Maybe that will lure Marisa out of bed.”

* * *

The broom ride to her lessons is the longest ride of Sunshine's life. It's still just cold enough that she needs to dress in layers for the long trip, and she stays huddled up behind Marisa, only occasionally daring to peek down at the land below. She doesn't know what kind of place she's going to learn magic, but she has a pretty good idea. Somewhere so important should look really impressive. It's probably some kind of big tower or castle. That's where the magicians in most of her stories live.

Her expectations still don't prepare her for seeing it up close. They land in front of the biggest building Sunshine has ever seen, and one that she remembers—a very big mansion, with a wall around it. The last time she saw it, though, she was only just starting to think. She hadn't been able to grasp just how truly big the building was. The schoolhouse is one of the biggest buildings in the village, but this building is so big that the schoolhouse could fit inside a dozen times without feeling cramped.

The guard out front waves them in after a brief talk with her parents, and Sunshine stays scrunched down behind Marisa the whole time. Only once they're out of the guard's earshot does she peek forward and dare to speak. “It's really big...”

“It's the Scarlet Devil Mansion,” Alice says, resting a hand on her back. “Do you remember? From our stories?”

Sunshine freezes up. She does remember hearing about the mansion, but mostly from Marisa's stories of fighting youkai. A vampire lives in here, so evil that she tried to cover up the entire sky once just for fun.

Marisa glances back to her once she's slowed down enough to fall behind. “Something wrong?”

Sunshine trembles, but shakes her head. Her parents are being brave, so she should too. She gestures for Ichigo to be on alert, though, leaving the tiny doll hovering around her like an overprotective guard dog.

The front door is the biggest that Sunshine has ever seen. As they approach, it shudders, then slowly swings open. The air fills with a low, groaning creak. Sunshine steels herself, tensing up, and Ichigo prepares for attack.

Instead of an enemy, though, a woman in very fancy-looking clothes steps out and holds Marisa's gaze for a moment, then dips an elegant curtsey. “Alice, I should probably thank you for teaching Miss Kirisame here how to enter the mansion through the front door.”

“Yep, never even occurred to me,” Marisa says, in a joking tone that doesn't betray the slightest hint of sarcasm. “Actually, I was hopin' maybe you could give me some lessons on using doorknobs while I'm here.”

“Good morning, Sakuya,” Alice says, ignoring Marisa and returning the curtsey. “I think Patchouli is expecting us?”

“She is, yes. This way, please.”

This is an encouraging sign, even if Sunshine still isn't entirely relaxed yet. She sticks close to her parents as they walk inside, their footsteps echoing from the cavernous walls. The walk feels almost as long as when they head into the village to go shopping. Even after the extra big breakfast, she feels like she's going to need a snack soon to keep her energy up. They eventually arrive, though, with their guide opening the final pair of doors to their destination.

It takes Sunshine a moment to recognize the things lining the walls as book shelves, because there are so many of them that it seems like that can't possibly be right. It's the biggest room she's ever seen, and they line every wall and stretch back and forth across the center, sometimes two or three high. It's more books than she's ever seen. It took her weeks to read all of the books on the tiny bookshelf in her bedroom. She can't even imagine why somebody would need so many books, but it's amazing anyway.

A few meters away, there's an overloaded desk, where a lavender-haired girl is hunched over. She barely even looks up from her book as they approach. “You're early,” she says. “I haven't finished preparing.”

“Good morning, Patchouli. And I'm sorry.” Alice hooks an arm around Sunshine's back and gently coaxes her forward. “Sunshine, this is Miss Knowledge. She'll be your teacher.”

“Should be a good pupil,” Marisa says. “Practically the only thing she's talked about for a week.”

Miss Knowledge gives a half-nod. “Well, all I had left was refreshing myself on the _Ars Notoria_ , anyway. It's rarely worth teaching a novice, unless her memory is exceptionally terrible.” She finishes scribbling a few lines on a page in front of her, and finally looks up at the three. Her gaze settles on Sunshine quickly, and she studies her for a moment. “You've grown some since I last saw you.”

Sunshine isn't sure how to reply to that. She shies back, giving a sheepish nod.

Miss Knowledge gives a tight-lipped smile and closes her book, then shuffles around her desk for a closer look. Ichigo edges forward to insert herself between the two, and Miss Knowledge eyes her. “And who is this?”

Sunshine fumbles her hands, wishing for her paper, but manages to work herself up to speaking. “Ichigo,” she mumbles.

“It's a pleasure to meet you both.”

“Huh.” Marisa rests her hands on the back of her head, glancing between the two thoughtfully. “Kinda surprised, Patchy. I never figured you for one to get along with kids.”

“I've parlayed with devils and debated the souls of undead Lemurian scholars,” Miss Knowledge says, with only the slightest bite underlying her dry tone. “I think that I can manage to talk to a child.”

“Is there anything else you need from us?” Alice asks. “We've done our best to prepare her, but, well... I'm no teacher, and Marisa didn't exactly have a standard magical education.”

“If she can read and write, that will be enough.” Miss Knowledge turns to face Sunshine's parents and crosses her arms. “Although some privacy would be a good start. I can send Sakuya to fetch you if we end early. Otherwise, please return in the evening.”

“Of course...” Alice says, sounding the slightest bit reluctant. She turns and crouches down to pull Sunshine into a hug. “Sunshine, be good for Miss Knowledge, okay?”

“Okay...”

Marisa moves in for a hug right after her. “And remember that Patchouli's all weak and sickly, so if she gives you any lip, you can push her around.” Both Alice and Patchouli's gazes bore into Marisa in response, and she just grins. “Can't make it too easy, y'know?”

After a few final goodbyes, her parents head out the door, leaving her alone with Miss Knowledge.

* * *

Sunshine has never learned magic before, but in her head, she has a pretty good idea of how it should works. It should be like when her parents were making her new body, she's decided. Big piles of messy notes and chanting and drawing diagrams on things with blood.

The way that Miss Knowledge teaches her is nothing like that. They sit down at a desk with a big pile of books. Miss Knowledge takes one from the top and cracks it open, its spine creaking. It smells like Marisa's old house, and the paper is yellow. Sunshine feels like she'd need to wash her hands if she even touches it.

“This is the _Charvaka Primer on Post-Materialism_. It gets a little philosophical for our purposes in places, but it's still a good foundation in magic. Do you have any questions before we begin?”

Sunshine frowns down at the book thoughtfully. She purses her lips, and the words pile up in her throat until she gives up and grabs a pen. [A MAGIC BOOK?]

“Even more important. This is a book that explains the ideas that magic is built on. Now, if you see here,” Miss Knowledge flips the page and taps a spot in the first paragraph. “It's important to understand that all beings exist in a unified cosmological framework. Put more simply, that means that gods and spirits may seem different from humans, but that these differences are spiritually trivial. In some magical traditions, this is referred to as the Principle of Unity. There are philosophies that oppose this idea, which we'll get into later...”

* * *

Miss Knowledge talks so much that Sunshine feels like her head is going to explode.

She takes her time to explain everything they cover, but she introduces new ideas so quickly that Sunshine's poor mind can barely keep up. Miss Knowledge tells her about how to decide which things are real and which things aren't. She talks about how to make good magical experiments. She talks about how people used to think magic worked, but they were wrong. She talks about souls, and how they change the way magic works. She talks about ley lines, and while Sunshine isn't sure what they are, they sound neat.

Sunshine settles into place, staring down at the book, with Ichigo sitting on the desk in front of her. Unlike in school, she doesn't even need to take notes, so she sits perfectly still, only giving the occasional nod when Miss Knowledge asks if she understands something. It's a long time to sit around without moving, but Sunshine used to be a doll, so she's used to it. She isn't sure how this is supposed to help her shoot lasers and fly around, but her parents brought her here, so obviously it's important.

Miss Knowledge reads for hours, only ever pausing for long enough to take a sip of her coffee. When her coffee is gone, even that interruption vanishes. She's still droning on hours later, when somebody clears their throat behind them.

It's the fancy-looking woman that led them in, and she gives an apologetic bow as Miss Knowledge glances back to her. “I'm sorry for the interruption, Lady Patchouli,” she says. “Would you like some lunch?”

“I'm not hungry, thank you,” Miss Knowledge murmurs, already turning her attention back to the book.

“Ah, but I had thought,” Sakuya presses on, with just a hint of insistence to her voice, “that Miss Margatroid might like something to eat.”

Miss Knowledge freezes and glances to Sunshine, and only then does Sunshine realize that 'Miss Margatroid' is her. She still isn't used to having two names. For a long time, she didn't have any name at all. She hopes that she isn't going to keep getting more names as she gets older. They'd be hard to keep track of. She pulls her paper closer and writes, [A LITTLE HUNGRY], then sheepishly offers it up for Sakuya to read.

“As I thought. Will sandwiches be okay?”

Sunshine nods. Miss Knowledge mumbles something under her breath, but Sakuya seems to catch it. She inclines her head in understanding. “Very well, then. One moment.”

Then, she disappears.

Sunshine stares at the spot where Sakuya had been, then cautiously reaches out to poke at it. She can't feel anything, but she isn't sure if that means anything. If she could be invisible, maybe she could be not-feel-able too? She glances to Miss Knowledge, but Miss Knowledge doesn't seem concerned.

Sunshine is just starting to consider asking about it when Sakuya reappears, as suddenly as she vanished. She slides a silver tray with a pile of sandwiches across the desk. Sitting next to it, there's already a smaller tray with a teapot and two cups, and Sunshine would swear it wasn't there before. “I'm sorry, I forgot to ask if you like crusts,” Sakuya says to Sunshine. “I cut them off just in case. Please let me know if that's a problem.”

Sunshine really isn't sure what's going on now. She made lots of sandwiches back when she was a normal doll, and even with a dozen dolls cooperating, they couldn't have made so many sandwiches this fast. She doesn't see a kitchen nearby, either, which just makes it weirder. She fumbles with her paper, uncertain what to write, then tries, [MAGIC SANDWICHES?]

Sakuya tilts her head uncertainly. “Ah, not magic. Ham. Is that okay?”

That isn't what Sunshine was trying to ask at all. She turns the paper around and frowns down at it for a few seconds, trying to string together all the words she needs. She settles on, [DID YOU MAKE SANDWICHES WITH MAGIC?]

Sakuya reads this, pauses, and gives a coy smile. “You could say it's something like that, yes.”

Sunshine gives a nod, relieved. She'd already thought that magic can do pretty much anything, so adding one more thing to the list isn't too weird. She grabs a sandwich and takes a dainty bite of it, followed by a sip of tea. Soon, she's eating ravenously. Thinking so hard burns a lot of energy. Only after she's downed three sandwich triangles does she slow down, feeling guilty that she's eating so many more than Miss Knowledge.

Miss Knowledge doesn't seem to mind, though. She nibbles noncommittally on a single sandwich in between glances at the book in front of her. When Sunshine slows down, she looks up from it, studying her across the table.

Sunshine meets her gaze questioningly, and a few more seconds pass in silence before Miss Knowledge asks, with more than the usual awkwardness of an adult speaking to an unfamiliar child, "... so. Do you go to school?"

Sunshine nods.

"In the village, I presume."

Sunshine nods again.

Miss Knowledge hesitates, her conversational topics momentarily depleted. "... and what is your favorite subject?"

Sunshine considers that. Nobody's ever asked her before, and it isn't one she's ever considered. It isn't like she gets to choose which ones she wants to learn, after all. "Um," she says. "Um. History." It's the only topic that Miss Kamishirasawa doesn't mostly read out of a book for, and it's the one with all the stories about people fighting each other.

Miss Knowledge frowns in a way that makes Sunshine feel like she made the wrong choice, but gives a curt nod. "I see."

Miss Knowledge nibbles away the last of her sandwich, and as Sunshine finishes her own, she stands and starts making further preparations. She pulls a thin, square stone slab from a shelf and slides it onto the desk. It has deep engravings of three spirals, which all come together to a point in the middle of the board. One spiral has three holes around its edge, and into them, she sticks filigree-covered golden rods. They come together to a point to make a tripod. From the tip of it, she hangs a thin chain, with a pointy green stone dangling at the bottom.

Sunshine senses that the next lesson is going to start soon, and polishes off the last of her sandwich. Miss Knowledge gives her just a moment to swallow before giving the device a gentle push toward her. "Do you know what this is?"

Sunshine shakes her head.

"It's a Triskelion of Philochorus." Seeing the look of confusion on Sunshine's face, Miss Knowledge quickly explains, "It's a device to test for magical potential. Think of it like... a stepladder. It gives you the boost that you need to cast a very simple spell."

Sunshine perks up and gives an excited wiggle in her chair. Reading about magic isn't too bad, but making magic happen is definitely what she came here for. Miss Knowledge takes her hands and gently guides them onto the board, sitting each hand on one of the unoccupied spirals. "Please look at the pendulum and try to focus on my voice."

Sunshine has no idea what the word 'pendulum' means. She looks between Miss Knowledge and the device uncertainly. "Um."

"... the pendulum is the bezoar—er, rock—on the chain."

That makes more sense. Sunshine settles in, staring at the rock, and Miss Knowledge starts to talk. "At the heart of any spell is what is typically called the key. The key is an... _idea_ that makes the spell work. For now, all you need to know about this spell is that I'll tell you a story, and I need you to picture it as well as you can. If you do, the you will cast the spell and the pendulum should move. Do you understand?"

Sunshine nods.

"Very well."

Miss Knowledge launches into a long and detailed story about a king who dies, leaving his three sons to argue about who will become his successor. All three of them grab the crown, but they're all equally strong, so no matter how long they fight over it, it never does more than shift back and forth. She goes into long detail about how the crown moves back and forth, and how it's always under tension from one brother or another. Sunshine doesn't dare to take her eyes off the pendulum for a moment, scrunching up her face and picturing the story _really hard_.

The pendulum doesn't move, though.

"Hmm." Miss Knowledge reaches the end of the story and looks at the pendulum. "Have you been imagining the story as I read it?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you're sure that you didn't stop listening for a while?"

Sunshine nods. Miss Knowledge purses her lips, looking unconvinced, then sighs. "We'll go through the story again, regardless. Please pay close attention."

"Okay..."

Miss Knowledge tells the story again, this time going into even more detail, describing the sons down to their clothes and narrating each movement of the crown as it goes back and forth. Sunshine does her best to imagine them, even thinking about them shouting at each other. The story goes on for ten minutes. The pendulum doesn't move.

Miss Knowledge stops again, frowning to herself. "... perhaps we should try something else."

* * *

The next several hours are a blur. Patchouli spends the entire afternoon trying different variations of the magic test—having Sunshine read weird words while holding shiny rocks, having her wave a wand at things, having her stare into bowls of water and look for pictures. Sunshine isn't sure what it all means, but it's a lot of work.

Enough work, in fact, that she dozes off at the desk toward the end of the day, and Patchouli lets her sleep. Patchouli goes back to her reading, and is still at it when Alice and Marisa return.

"Oh, heya," Marisa says, glancing toward Sunshine and grinning. "Poor kid couldn't keep up, huh?"

"She's only been asleep for half an hour. I'd thought it was better to let her rest."

"You must have been keeping her busy to wear her out so quickly," Alice says, with a soft smile. "I'll try to feed her more before we bring her next time. She can go for days as long as she eats enough."

"Ah. Well. About that." Patchouli primly folds her book closed, then rests her hands on it and chooses her next words carefully. "I don't know that there needs to be a 'next time.'"

"Huh?" Marisa glances over from admiring Sunshine. "What do you mean? She didn't pick it up that quick, did she?"

"She didn't pick it up at all. As near as I can tell, she's completely unsuited for magic."

A few seconds pass in silence, as Alice and Marisa stare at her in muted shock. "I'm not sure what you mean," Alice says. "When I built her new body, I made sure that the right conduits are there for—"

"And yet, she doesn't have the aptitude."

"Well... Sunshine is intelligent, but she _is_ still young," Alice says. "Maybe she just couldn't focus well enough?"

Marisa nods in impatient agreement. "If she's just not very strong, we can work with that. I'll have Rinnosuke whip her up a more powerful mini-hakkero."

"The mini-hakkero is a furnace. Even the most powerful furnace needs a spark to ignite it." Patchouli sighs and adds, softly but insistently, "I tried three visualization exercises, two concentration ones, and three types of foci. I even tried the Sieve of Lao-Tzu just in case. She simply... can't project magical energy under any circumstances that I can find."

"But she—" Alice fumbles over her words, struggling to keep a level tone. "Everybody has _some_ level of magical ability."

"You mean that every human or youkai does, yes. Sunshine is neither. If we consider a spectrum wherein a youkai's nature is mostly spiritual and a human's nature is both spiritual and material, I theorize that as an object—"

" _Don't_ ," Alice says, with a biting edge to her voice, "call our daughter an object, please."

"... I theorize that as she _began life as a construct_ ," Patchouli corrects herself, "she is entirely material in nature. While evidence is that she has a soul, I don't think that she has any ability to use magic or spiritual abilities."

Another few seconds pass in silence. Marisa clenches her hand into a fist and releases it a few times. "So you're sayin' there's nothing we can do."

"There are... rituals and forms of meditation that may be able to help her expand her spiritual awareness. Perhaps with a few years of practice, she might be able to do basic cantrips, but even that is—"

"I think we understand, yes," Alice says coolly.

Alice gets no further than that, as Sunshine stirs on the table, then lifts her head and glances up at the three. She doesn't wake up quite like a human—there's no yawning, no slow drifting back to awareness. One moment she's asleep, the next, she's looking at them with alert, curious eyes. She smiles. "Hi."

"Ah." Marisa steps over and rests a hand on her back. "Hey, kiddo. How was the lesson?"

But Sunshine can't overlook the heavy mood of the room, and the way that all three are watching her. She glances between them uncertainly. "... am I in trouble?"

"Ah? Er, no, not at all," Alice says, walking over to join Marisa next to her. "We were just discussing, er. Well."

Marisa clears her throat and picks up the conversation. "Nothing you need to worry about right now. Let's fly home n' have a big dinner, and then me and your mom will tell you all about it after, alright?"


	6. Mushrooms

“Would you like to draw?” Alice asks. She removes her hand from Sunshine's hair to grab a stack of loose paper and one of Sunshine's pencils, then drags them closer on the coffee table. “Here. How about that?”

Sunshine shakes her head.

“Would you like me to read to you?”

“No thank you...”

Alice frowns to herself, studying Sunshine's face. “Sweetie, it's been three days. Do you plan to lay on the couch the entire break?”

Sunshine doesn't have a response to that. She stays quiet, and the sound of rain drumming on the roof fills the house.

The break for planting season hasn't been nearly as fun as Sunshine had expected. First, her parents sat her down and told her that she isn't able to be a magician. It was the saddest she's ever been, even worse than when she broke her arm and couldn't play outside. To make matters worse, it's rained for the past few days, so she can't even play outside. She isn't sure she'd want to anyway. She hasn't felt much like playing ever since she found out that she can't do magic. It almost feels like she was so excited for that, she used up all her excitement for other stuff.

“Well then,” Alice says, “in that case, I think that I'm going to make cookies. Would you like to help me?”

Sunshine glances up at Alice, and after a moment's consideration, nods. She still feels the need to help Alice around the house. She can remember what it felt like when that was all she wanted, and she's definitely moved on from that, but it still feels nice to be helpful.

And besides, she'd have to be _really_ sad to be too sad for cookies.

* * *

"Now we add two eggs," Alice says. The last word is barely out of her mouth before Sunshine lifts one from the basket, and Ichigo hovers in to grab another. They give them a pair of expert taps against the edge of the bowl, then dump the contents inside.

"... three-quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon..." Sunshine opens the little jar of cinnamon and carefully measures out a level 3/4 teaspoon, then adds it to the bowl.

"... a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg..." Sunshine does the same with the nutmeg.

"... and stir until it forms a stiff dough."

Sunshine gestures toward a mixing spoon on the wall, and Ichigo delivers it to her. Taking it in both hands, she sticks it into the mixture and starts stirring, while Ichigo grabs onto the edge of the bowl to hold it level.

Alice watches this with half-veiled amusement. "I'm not sure if you even need me here for this."

Sunshine pauses and looks up. "Cooking is easy..."

"Sometimes I forget that you've been doing this sort of thing since before you can talk." Alice steps over and rests a hand on her shoulder. "But keep going. The cookies won't look as nice if we don't get them in the oven while the dough is still cold."

Sunshine nods and continues stirring. Soon, her face is scrunched up in concentration and effort, as the dough starts putting up some resistance. Poor Ichigo has to brace herself against the bowl to keep it in place, and her little arms tremble with the effort.

Before they can finish, the front door of the house opens, followed by Marisa's voice. "Yo! Sunshine, are you free? I've got something I wanna show you."

"We're baking cookies," Alice calls toward the front of the house. "What is it?"

Marisa's footsteps approach the kitchen, and before she's even close, Sunshine can hear a distinctive _squish_ beneath them. "It's a surprise!"

"Marisa, we're— _you're tracking mud everywhere_."

"Only a little! Dolls'll clean it right up anyway, right? What's the problem?"

"That isn't an excuse to make a mess!"

"Right, so, anyway." Marisa steps past Alice to rest a hand on Sunshine's back. "Wanna go mushroom hunting out by the shrine? With this weather, I bet there's lots of them popping up."

"Um." Sunshine squirms under the soggy hand. "But it's raining..."

"That's the best time to find 'em."

"I'm sure the mushrooms will still be there when the rain stops," Alice says.

"Nah, trust me." Marisa shoots her a wink. "Right now's a special time for it. You know?"

“... what's special about it?”

Marisa sighs. “Right now's just an extra-good _special_ kind of time for mushroom hunting.” She winks again, this time putting so much force into it that it's practically audible.

Alice stares at her, pursing her lips in a mixture of indecision and annoyance, until she capitulates. "... well, you'd know better than I would," she says, and looks to Sunshine. "Sunshine, do you want to go mushroom hunting? I can finish up the cookies. They should be nice and hot when you get back."

Sunshine isn't quite sure what's going on, but she trusts Marisa, even if it means walking outside in the mud. She releases the spoon and nods. "Okay..."

"Great!" Marisa gives her another pat on the back and leans back, grinning. "Let's get you dressed, then. And bring your sword, too. Never know when it'll come in handy, right?"

* * *

Like all of Sunshine's clothes, her raincoat was custom-made by Alice. It's blue and it has a hood, and it has an enchantment on it to make water slide right off. Normally, she isn't sure why Alice and Marisa seem to dislike getting rained on so much. It's just water, just like when she takes a bath. Today, though, she's glad for the raincoat. She keeps the hood pulled down over her face as the broom rockets over Gensokyo, and between that and the shield of Marisa's body, she doesn't have to worry about getting water in her eyes.

She sees the shrine through the haze of rain below, but they fly right past it. A short while later, Marisa pulls the broom to a stop, and they descend through the canopy below. Here, the forest is thick enough that the rain barely gets past the leaves, drumming on the canopy above before dripping to the ground elsewhere. Sunshine's first few steps squelch on the wet ground, and she's glad that she's wearing her boots.

"There we go," Marisa says, swinging the broom up onto her shoulder. "You've never been mushroom hunting before, right?"

Sunshine nods.

"So, we're lookin' for little brown mushrooms, about this tall, or skinny white ones. If you see any that are other colors, don't grab 'em, okay?"

"Okay..."

"So, I'll go this way..." Marisa jerks her thumb toward the forest behind her. "... and you can go that way." ... and points to a path that leads off in the opposite direction. “In about ten minutes, come back here and we'll meet up again, alright?”

Sunshine glances down the path and frowns. “You're not coming with me...?”

“Well, the forest around here's pretty safe. The actual dangerous youkai aren't dumb enough to hang out around the shrine. Plus, if something happens...” Marisa crouches down and gives Ichigo a careful pat on the head with a fingertip. “That's what Ichigo's for, right? _And_ you've got your sword.”

That makes her feel better. Ichigo's a really good doll, and she's shot Yukari, who's the scariest person Sunshine can even imagine. She should be pretty safe as long as Ichigo's nearby. Sunshine scoops the tiny doll into a hug and nods.

“Good. Remember, ten minutes! And if you find more mushrooms than you can carry, yell and I'll come help, alright?”

“Okay...”

Marisa gives a final nod and heads off into the forest. Sunshine hesitates, but she needs to be brave. She releases Ichigo into the air again, then heads off down the path in the opposite direction.

Apart from the rain, the forest is quiet here. Her parents have warned her dozens of times that she can't go into the Forest of Magic alone, and sometimes at night, she can hear animals howling and snarling in the distance. This forest is a lot nicer than that. Little bunches of flowers bloom all along the edges of the trail, and everything around her is bright green. It helps cheer her up a little, even with the rain dripping down all around her.

After walking for a minute or so, Sunshine spots a cluster of mushrooms poking up through the leaves. She crouches down to inspect them, and they look just like the ones Marisa described, short and brown. With Ichigo's help, she picks them, then continues down the trail, carefully cupping them in her palms.

A bit further down the trail, something rustles in the trees. She stops, peering up at them, but can't see anything. A few seconds pass in silence, and she decides to continue.

The trees rustle more loudly this time, with the loud snap of a twig.

Sunshine freezes, staring up at them wide-eyed. Ichigo hovers forward defensively, and Sunshine lets her free hand drift down to the wooden sword by her side. “Um...” She glances back along the path, but it seems like a really long walk back to the place where she left Marisa.

She doesn't get the chance to turn around anyway. From the treetops, a voice shouts, “Who dares steal my mushrooms?!”

Sunshine looks down at the mushrooms in her hands. She isn't sure if somebody can even own mushrooms that grow in the forest, but having somebody shout at her about it is kind of scary either way. She takes a few hurried steps backward and glances indecisively toward the clearing. “U-um.”

“O ho ho! You can't escape, foolish mortal! For now you have angered, me, the Great Youkai of... um. of Light!”

The branches rustle more loudly this time, and something fades into sight in mid-air before landing on the forest floor. The Great Youkai of Light is a lot shorter than Sunshine's imagination would usually guess. She's actually a little shorter than Sunshine herself. Plus, there are her clothes. A black cloak is draped over her back, with lumpy shapes beneath that even Sunshine can tell are wings. There's a wooden bucket over her head, with eyeholes cut out of it and a scary, roaring face drawn on the front with chalk. She has a staff in her hands that's twice as tall as she is, and it kind of looks like a mop handle to Sunshine.

This, of course, the scariest thing that Sunshine's ever seen.

“Return my mushrooms to me,” the Great Youkai of Light gives her mop handle staff an intimidating shake overhead, “and leave this place!”

Sunshine shies backward, clasping the mushrooms to her chest. “But they're mine...” Ichigo settles into position hovering right between the two.

“O ho ho ho!” It's probably meant to sound like a really smug laugh, but the Great Youkai of Light is really just _saying_ it. She takes a step closer. “They'll be mine again after I beat you up and take them!”

Sunshine quivers in fear, but she has to be really brave. She tucks the mushrooms into a pocket and draws her wooden sword, holding it up uncertainly in front of herself. This doesn't stop the Great Youkai of Light. She starts stomping forward, holding her staff in front of her like a sword. “Go away!” Sunshine squeaks.

The Great Youkai of Light keeps advancing anyway. “O ho ho ho!” she shouts. Her helmet jostles a little with each firm stomp, until it turns around and she can't see out of the eyeholes anymore. It makes her a little less scary, but not nearly enough.

Sunshine shrinks backward behind her sword, trembling. After a moment, she remembers to gesture Ichigo forward. Ichigo hovers right up to the Great Youkai of Light, and Sunshine doesn't waste any time. With one more gesture, she instructs the little doll to fire. Ichigo rears back, and a cone of tiny rainbow-colored bullets explode out of the air in front of her.

Now completely blinded by her own helmet, the Great Youkai of Light is entirely unprepared for the attack. “Agh, what the heck?!” She drops her staff and wildly swats at the spray of bullets, like she's trying to fight a swarm of bees. The bullets pepper her all over, and when they bounce off her helmet, they give soft thumps like marbles falling on a table. This mighty attack is too much for the youkai to handle. She stumbles backward a few steps, then dramatically pitches herself back onto the ground.

“Argh, I'm defeated!” the Great Youkai of Light shouts, before going still.

Sunshine gestures for Ichigo to stop, but holds her position for a few seconds before cautiously advancing on the youkai. She grabs a stick from the forest floor and prods at her helmet.

“Hey!” The Great Youkai shouts. “Quit it.”

Sunshine reluctantly stops.“Um. Are you okay...?”

“I'm defeated!” The Great Youkai shouts with a huff. “Go away! You won.”

This is all really strange, but Sunshine guesses it makes sense. She's never exterminated a youkai before, so she isn't sure what's supposed to happen afterward. Marisa's stories about fighting youkai usually gloss over that part. She gives an uncertain nod, but backs away and rises to her feet. After a few seconds of consideration, she leans in to whisper to Ichigo. “Um. Let's keep going.”

Sunshine's more careful as she proceeds through the forest this time, though. She spends as much time watching out for youkai as she does trying to find mushrooms. After a short while, though, she spots some more mushrooms and hurries over to pick them. It's good at taking her mind off of the attack. When she gets back to the trail, she glances back at where she fought the Great Youkai of Light, and her body isn't there anymore. It's a little worrying, but it makes as much sense as anything else. Sunshine continues down the trail.

This time, she's attentive enough to spot the pointed tip of a translucent wing poking up from the underbrush before she gets close. She freezes in place, staring at it for a few seconds. Whoever the wing is attached to doesn't seem to notice. “Um,” Sunshine says. “... is somebody in the bush?”

The bush rustles, and frantic, whispered conversation comes from it. “Ah. Er. We're...”

“The Mighty Youkai of Darkness!”

The owner of the wing jumps up and into view, thrusting a finger into the air triumphantly. She looks like an even weirder kind of youkai. She's wearing a black cloak, with the hood pulled up over her head, but Sunshine can still see an eye patch under it, too. She has four wings that poke out freely, giving a little flutter as she levels her finger at Sunshine.

“Hey! We haven't even—“ The other voice from the bushes sighs and scrambles to catch up with her. “The Mighty Youkai of Darkness!” it shouts, as it too jumps out in front of Sunshine. This Mighty Youkai is wearing a flat white mask with two holes for the eyes and a bunch of holes over the mouth, and a pile of silvery blonde ringlets poke out past it. She also has a baggy white robe that looks kind of scary, but also gets tangled in the bush, making her hop around and tug at it for a few seconds before she's freed. Once she's away from the bush, she waves her arms extra threateningly to make up for it.

“We've heard that you defeated our ally, the Great Youkai of Light,” the first youkai says. “So we came here to avenge her!”

“Yeah, that,” the second youkai says, sighing to herself and tugging at her baggy robe.

“Um!” Sunshine gestures Ichigo forward again, and draws her sword. “Are you... bad guys?” she demands, in a shaky voice.

“Ohohoho!” It's the same smug laugh that the Great Youkai of Light used, but when the first Mighty Youkai of Darkness does it, it sounds a lot less forced. “Right! We're the most evil youkai there are!”

“And the mightiest!” her companion adds, getting into the experience a bit more.

The two youkai raise their hands overhead and waggle their fingers spookily, then start slowly advancing on her. Sunshine raises a hand to command Ichigo, and—

“Oh, you beat her up with that doll, right?” The first Mighty Youkai of Darkness asks. She leans forward and wraps both hands around Ichigo, plucking her out of the air. “I'd better hold on to this!”

Sunshine's eyes go wide. She's never even thought about somebody managing to beat Ichigo. Ichigo thrashes in the youkai's hands, occasionally firing off a little burst of bullets, but the youkai doesn't seem to mind.

“Let go of her...!” Sunshine squeaks.

“Ohohoho! We will after we beat you up!” The two youkai start advancing on her again, with one still holding the protesting Ichigo.

“Let go of her!”

“If you surrender, we'll get this over with quickly,” the other youkai promises, sounding a bit tired of this.

Sunshine trembles with barely-restrained outrage, but now she knows what to do. She's okay with giving up the mushrooms if she has to, but there's no way she's giving up when evil youkai like this have their hands on Ichigo.

She steps forward, raises her wooden sword overhead, and slams it down on the nearest youkai's head. “Let go of Ichigo!”

“O-ow, hey, what the heck?!”

But Sunshine isn't going to be pacified so easily. She keeps smacking the youkai with her sword, even as the youkai starts stumbling backward and raising her hands defensively. After a few seconds, the youkai falls to the ground, then scrambles back to her feet and goes into a full retreat.

Sunshine turns on the other youkai, who looks a little less confident now. “You weren't supposed to _hit_ he—“

The youkai cuts off with a squeak as Sunshine charges at her, sword raised. In a frantic flurry of motion, she practically throws Ichigo into Sunshine's face, then turns and takes off running. “Okay, you win!”

The two youkai retreat off into the underbrush. The second one's robe catches on a root and she sprawls to the ground, but Sunshine leaves her alone while she tugs herself free. She still keeps an eye on them until they're completely out of sight, and she's safely alone in the forest once more.

* * *

Sunshine is still gushing about her victory when the broom lands in front of the house.

“Um! And. She grabbed Ichigo. And I was scared. Um. Um! And I hit the other one with my sword, and she ran away! Um. Even... even without Ichigo's help!”

“Wow, sounds pretty rough,” Marisa says. She crouches down in front of Sunshine. “C'mon, boots.”

Sunshine holds a foot out for Marisa to tug the boot off, but doesn't interrupt her story for it. “And, um! The other one was... the other one was...” She slows down for a moment, giving a frustrated huff, as her tongue struggles to catch up with her brain. “... scared. And she gave Ichigo back and ran away.”

“... who was this?” Alice's voice comes from the kitchen. Marisa freezes, looking like a mouse cornered by a cat.

Sunshine's too excited to notice. As Alice steps into view, she yanks her foot out of her second boot and runs over to hug her thigh. “I beat up three youkai!”

“Three—Marisa, _what were you doing_?”

“A-ah, hey, hey!” Marisa says, scrambling forward to raise a placating hand toward Alice. “They were, uh, tiny youkai!” She pointedly hisses, “Talk about it later, alright?” before turning back to Sunshine. “... but real impressive for a little tyke like you!”

Sunshine gives an excited nod, making her hair bounce around her. “Um! One had a scary mask. And one um. Had a helmet.”

“Did they?” Alice asks, in a voice somewhere between suspicion and outright confusion.

“And just think,” Marisa says, leaning in to ruffle her hair. “You managed it all without any magic at all. We might just make a youkai hunter outta you yet.”

In her excitement, Sunshine had almost forgotten about the magic thing. Even now, she quickly pushes past it. “I can draw them!” she says to Alice. “Then, um, then you can see!”

* * *

It's late in the evening before Marisa gets a chance to sneak outside, while Alice helps Sunshine get ready for bed. She eases out the front door, praying that it doesn't make a single creak, and takes off through the rainy skies toward the Hakurei Shrine.

Again, she flies past the shrine. This time she lands in a clearing a hundred meters or so behind it, where a single giant tree towers over the rest of the forest. After resting her broom against its trunk, she leans over and gives it a few solid thumps. “Hey, you guys still awake?”

It takes a few seconds, but a muffled voice shouts out of the tree. “You were supposed to be here like five hours ago!”

“Yeah, well, I got held up.”

There's no response to that except some muffled complaints. There's a creak near the base of the tree, and three fairies appear seemingly out of midair. Luna Child stops as soon as she's in front of Marisa, crossing her arms and scowling. “And you didn't say we were going to get beat up, either!”

“That girl was really vicious...” Star agrees with a shiver.

Sunny looks over to them curiously. “Huh, I didn't notice anything...”

“That bad, huh?” Marisa asks.

“She did chase us with a sword...” Star says.

“She chased _you_. I'm the one who got hit with it!” Luna corrects her.

“I mean, it's a _wooden_ sword,” Marisa says, glancing between the two complaining, but completely unharmed-looking fairies. “A fairy should be able to shrug off something like that real easy, right?”

The two fairies grumble a bit, but neither of them can come up with a good counterpoint to that. Marisa decides to move the conversation along. “Besides, the important thing is that it worked. You must be pretty good actors! She's still happy about beating up a bunch of scary youkai. So, here.” She slips her hat off, and from the depths, pulls out a bottle of sake and offers it over. “There's your payment. From the shrine's offerings, even. Y'know, the good stuff.”

The fairies' wounds, real or imagined, are instantly forgotten. “Oh! Thank you,” Star says, already taking it in hand.

“Yeah, don't mention it.”

Marisa leans against the tree, crossing her arms behind, and watches the fairies start divvying up the bottle's contents. They're efficient like that. “Oh! You should stay and have snacks,” Sunny says. “We found a lot of mushrooms while we were out there waiting for her.”

“Eh, I mean, I'd love to, but, uh.” Marisa glances aside, in a rare show of embarrassment. “I should probably get home before Alice notices I'm missing. She's _kinda_ pissed off at me. 'Don't teach her it's okay to get into fights with youkai' and stuff, you know?”

“You should definitely teach her not to fight fairies,” Star agrees cheerily, already sipping at a cup of sake.

“Won't it make it really easy for youkai to eat her if she doesn't fight back?” Luna asks, confused.

“Think the idea's that we stop that from even being an issue in the first place,” Marisa says. She rises from leaning and grabs her broom from its spot against the tree, giving it a lazy spin before resting it by her side. “Anyway, enjoy the booze. … and hold on to those costumes and stuff! Might need you to pull that again.”

Marisa hops on her broom and takes off into the sky. Soon, she's headed toward home, and a long-overdue berating from Alice.


End file.
